air cond problem

Fairlane63 · 09-11-2006, 10:42 PM

My 99 Au has really cold air for about ten minutes, then goes warm for ten then really cold again. took it to an air con guy who said he could not fault the system. told me that it may be the wrong thermostat and when the car gets hot the air shuts down? an ideas?

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fairmont au · 10-11-2006, 09:13 PM

ahh the cooling fan motor for the engine has died ours did it about a month ago not fun when your going 100 kms an hour with the windows down

Fairlane63 · 10-11-2006, 10:43 PM

thanks for rplying,
the cooling fan motor?
sorry I don't understand. Do you mean there is a cooling fan for the air cond?

ef_classic · 10-11-2006, 10:46 PM

Maybe he is talking about the 2 thermo fans?

Fairlane63 · 12-11-2006, 12:34 AM

guess I HAVE to take it to Ford. $$$$$

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TwistedEL · 12-11-2006, 01:14 AM

When you say really cold do you mean REALLY cold?
It is probably a thermostat problem in the a/c when it gets so cold it ices up it shuts down to protect itself

fairmont au · 12-11-2006, 10:14 PM

yeah im talking about the thermo fans. if you put it in yourself dont break the fan blades as they are a seperate item when the motor comes it just that the motor.
another thing when the a/c is on its the first load the engine doesn't need so the computer tells the a/c compresser to shut down to give priority to the engine that because it dosen't have 2 thermo fans is slightly warmer then it would normally be that could cause engine damage.
also ours when the compresser would kick in it would litterally blow out small chuncks of ice

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fairmont au · 12-11-2006, 10:23 PM

me again,
the au's have 2 fan speeds so when both fans are working there on slow mode when the a/c is off but when you turn the air con on on a warm day the computer tells the fans to go fast mode to keep the engine temp normal to compinsate for the extra heat from the wheather and the compresser but when only one is working it kills your aircon to take the load off the engine to keep the engine cool. when this happened we also had the aircon checked the oriface tube was stuffed. we already new about this as the air con in normal conditions was not performing

TwistedEL · 12-11-2006, 11:21 PM

The fans come on / speed up for the A/C becuase it requires air flow over the condensor to work. It has nothing to do with cooling the engine due to the extra load - there really isn't all that much extra load caused by the compressor engaging.

Fairlane63 · 12-11-2006, 11:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TwistedEL

When you say really cold do you mean REALLY cold?
It is probably a thermostat problem in the a/c when it gets so cold it ices up it shuts down to protect itself

yep by really cold I mean REALLY cold...........cant believe I just wrote that.
so there is a thermostat in the A/C?

TwistedEL · 12-11-2006, 11:34 PM

Yep get a fridgie to look at it, it might be cheaper than Ford (who would probably just outsource it)

Umineko · 13-11-2006, 07:40 PM

A number of things can cause this effect, Low gas in the A/C lines, a blockage in the dryer, too much gas in the system' icing up of the evaporator coil which as you say it gets REALLY cold sounds the most likely cause to me, this can be caused by dust, leaves, general gunge blocking the cooling vanes in the coil slowing the airflow to the point where the coil literally freezes. if it is the evaporator, it aint going to be cheap because the dash will have to come out. best thing to do is take it to a good automotive airconditioning repairer and have him check gas and flow levels.

Umineko · 13-11-2006, 07:45 PM

Oh and yes there is a thermostat in the A/C but as it's located very close to the evaporator coil it may well be icing up as well, a malfunctioning thermostat generally just dies, they don't usually cause a cyclic fault, not saying it's not possible but it is unlikely