i was running my a/c while driving through st. louis the other day and really not paying much attention to the car (unfortunately).
after having it on i could feel the car start to feel like the engine was under alot of load/stress while the a/c was running, then after about 30 seconds the "load" would disappear and it would run normal again for about 30 seconds then go back under "load". back and forth and back and forth, i didn't really pay much attention till after about a half hour of driving i saw my temp gauge had skyrocketed to about 230 degrees
, which isn't in the "danger" zone, but enough to worry me 4 hours from home. needless to say the a/c didn't get run the rest of the weekend. so i turned the a/c and the car off and let it cool down for a few minutes. started the car up (without the a/c on) and drove back to the hotel and everything was fine, no overheating no nothing.
my question is, did the car just not like running the a/c while doing city driving? was it too much for it? is my fan dying? is this the reason i've been looking for to simply do an a/c delete?
someone help please. thank you.
Your A/C system cycles. Id say let it idle in the driveway and watch the compressor itself to see if its making any noise or locking up. Could be going bad and causing an extra load on the engine.
How has the A/C output been?
for awhile about a year ago it quit working completely with no explanation. did a recharge on it and everything. then one day it just magically started working.
the other day is the first time it's started acting up since. before that the output was great. you could always tell the engine was working just a tad harder because it does put a strain on it. but nothing like what it was doing to the car the other night. it was almost like a violent load on the engine the other day.
Did you overfill it when you charged it? We've almost stalled out my friends Mazda from overfilling the A/C. It idled at like 800 rpm and as soon as the compressor cycled itd drop to 300 or 400 and shake like a crack addict.
does your radiator / A/c fan works? mine was doing the same thing cycling off and on. it was the motor fan from the radiator it was in its last legs. My A/c would work only in the freeway. But as soon I would stop i would start to overheat and cycle off and on.
turn the car on and let it idle in the driveway. Turn the Ac on. If the fan turns on then the fan is working correctly. If the fan does not turn on the replace the fan relay. I had the exact same problem as you and Perroloco. Fan Relay was shot. Ac would only work on the highway as it was being cooled. If the cooling fan is not on the engine will over heat and the AC will blow hot when idleing. the part's fairly cheap and comes with a lifetime warranty from autozone.
probly the fan motor itself replaced a bunch this summer through the shop
When was the last time you took the car to a carwash and sprayed your radiator and condensor full blast and cleaned it off? I would try that, when those things clog up they can cause issues like that too. You also can test the fan bu jumping the terminals at the fan relay. I know it breaks it down in the manual in this forum thats downloadable. Just shoot power to it, if it turns on, ur fan is ok, if not, then fan is bad. It should kick on fast and at full speed. If it does kick on like said, I would throw a relay at it and go from there. If not then u may need to trace some wires. I had to do the same thing, and its not too bad, and sometimes something really easy.
Mike Z A.K.A SNEEZY wrote:When was the last time you took the car to a carwash and sprayed your radiator and condensor full blast and cleaned it off? I would try that, when those things clog up they can cause issues like that too. You also can test the fan bu jumping the terminals at the fan relay. I know it breaks it down in the manual in this forum thats downloadable. Just shoot power to it, if it turns on, ur fan is ok, if not, then fan is bad. It should kick on fast and at full speed. If it does kick on like said, I would throw a relay at it and go from there. If not then u may need to trace some wires. I had to do the same thing, and its not too bad, and sometimes something really easy.
Sorry, I have no experience with your issue Jay. What Mike says is true at least with the Caterpillar 970F front end loaders and 637F scrapers. It was my job to clean the radiators once a week with a pressure washer, and the amount of crap that came out of them was unbelievable. If they didnt get cleaned, they would overheat and the AC on the loader would stop working (Cat scrapers didnt have AC, but they would still overheat). I cleaned my radiator at the job and though it was nothing like the heavy equipment (the scrapers have 2 radiators bigger than I was) lots of nasty crap came out.
It might not solve your problem, but definitely worth the 5 minutes it takes to do.
You also need to double check the a/c system and make sure the high pressure side(hot side) is within its pressure range. IIRC the high side should fall between 200-250 psi. To much pressure could cause the pump to bind up and cause a failure in the system. The fan not kicking on will cause the head pressure in the system to just keep building up. The fan should kick on around 250-275 psi to relieve the pressure in the system.
replace A/C fan relay and the motor itself of the radiator fan. thats how my problem was solved.
