If you really don't care about the AC temps in your new truck don't bother reading this..


04 Lariat Scab, bought it last July. Vent temps blowing 55-60 degrees after 3 weeks and 1500 miles. Dealer tries to tell me this is normal.. I said lets put the gauges on it just for grins. The tech finds it was low on R-134. They charge it figuring it didn't get fully charged at Norfolk. For 2 weeks it's blowing 50-55, but warming up. It's still not air conditioning. Back to the dealer and they find the fill valve is leaking. They replace it, pull a vaccum, and recharge it. Back to 50-55 degrees. Then it cooled off here in Sept/Oct and there wasn't much sense..

Two weeks ago I figure it's time to get on them about it. Well they finally looked the system over and the compressor was bad. Took a week to get one, but today she's blowing 37-38 degrees at the vents. Now we're getting somewhere, but it was only 78 degrees outside. So I'll let it go till it get's hotter out and see what it does.

With the size of the condensor in front of the radiator in these trucks you should be able to hang meat and damn near freeze it in these trucks at 90 degrees outside temps. A buddy of mine bought a new 04 in Feb and his vent temps were at 36-37 in my driveway at 85 degrees outside last month. In the wind at 60mph he's probably blowing colder than that..and I'll check that soon..

All temps were taken with a infrared heat gun. Don't let these dealers give that Heiniken cold crap at 45-50 degree vent temps.. You can buy heat guns cheap if you look at Radio Control Nitro gas truck web sites for like 30 bucks. Mine's a little better than those, but they all work and handy to have.

I know a little about auto AC systems and have my 88 Bronco charged with a mix of propane and isobutane. It's called Envirosafe. It's direct replacement for R12 and R134. It's an old R12 system on that truck. I can hang wet rag in front of the vents on that truck and it will stiffen up. Thats headache cold...


Most of the problem stems from what Ford allows the dealers to do. When they recharge if the system says 3.4lbs of R134 that what they put in, turn the valves off and walk away from it. Any fool who's ever played with AC systems knows a few ounces either way can make a 10 degree difference at the vents. If I have to I'll tweek mine till it's headache cold.. R134 is cheap...