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a/c issue

T

thekelleyjb

New member
About a 3 weeks ago I noticed a weird thing with my a/c a couple of times where it was blowing cooler on the passenger side then the drivers side, and no I don't have dual controls. Last week I was 2 hours into an 8 hour trip and my usually awesome running 99 Grand prix started hesitating on acceleration. A little while later I pulled into a rest stop. All the while my a/c seemed to be running fine or maybe just slightly warmer than normal. I shut the car off for 10 minutes. Got back in and headed down the road, the hesitation was worse. Then all of the sudden my a/c starts blowing warm air and the hesitation immediately goes away. Car ran great the rest of the trip but no a/c. When I got home I tried to add Freon but it was full according to the psi. I am a female and don't have a lot of brut strength but when I look I can see that the compressor and the clutch are running when I turn the air on. The indicator light on the interior heat and a/c unit illuminates when I press the a/c button. There was a relay fuse under the hood for a/c which I swapped out with the one labeled horn ( which I know works) and it made no difference in the a/c. I took the one out that is labeled a/c diode out and since I didn't know what I was looking for it looked normal to me. I then checked all the fuses in the glove box labeled hvac and all were good. Any pointers on anything else I could check out for a possible easy solution? Thx
 


I'd be at the point of hooking up pressure gauges to the AC system to see what it going on, see what it's reading. Even trying to jump the compressor to see if it's still alive.

You might have to have a shop do a A/C system test on it to know exactly what is wrong with it if you don't have the equipment to do so.
 
Unfortunately you've gone as far as you probably can, unless you buy a set of gauges and hook in to see what is going on in the system.

I just got done battling my wife's A/C. First the suction line was leaking behind the ABS module, replaced all those lines. Then shortly after the A/C compressor started to leak, replaced that and we have been good to go since.

I dropped some serious coin on tools but they have already paid for themselves when the A/C compressor dropped out (shop wanted 1,500 to replace). I did it myself for around 300.

Granted I just got done buying a set of gauges ($200), a vacuum pump (400) but now I can basically fix any car at my house.

Take it in, most shops will diagnose for free (note this is usually a visual only which you have already done) but to really know whats going on, they need to evacuate, pump down, charge with dye, hook in with gauges and then they can check the condition of the orfice tube, compressor and see if the evap or condensor are plugged.

Expect to pay around 200 for a full diagnose and then depending on what is wrong can be a cheap as 100 upwards to 2000 if the evaporator is plugged or leaking.
 
I guess what puzzles me most is why the car doesn't run right when I try the a/c. My only guess is that's because of the compressor not turning right and making the serpentine belt lag..?
 
It could be drawing a huge amount of current and causing a power loss to the electrical system or maybe even when the clutch tries to engage it's almost to the point of locking up and creating a drag on the belt.

These are just guesses.
 


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