SO to save on gas, we decided to take my wife's 98 Taurus instead of my beastly 98 Expy the other day. Much to my suprise, I turned on the A/C and it was blowing HOT air!!?!? It didn't cool off in the next 5-10 minutes so we just shut the air off and put the windows down.

Anyone have thoughts on this? Could it be something as simple as needing a re-charge?

 

*Does the compressor clutch engage?
*Has it lost all of it's charge as evidenced by hooking up a gauge?

 

1) Haven't looked at it yet....not sure what i am looking for.....

2) Don't have a gauge to hook up to it.....

I'm good with the standard stuff like brakes, plugs, etc.... however i'm a self proclaimed heating and A/C idiot

Scheduled to have my local shop take a peak at it first thing Thursday morning and tell me if it is a simple recharge or something more critical.

 

Also it might be that the air control door is feeding the air out of the heater core instead of the evaporator. Is it vacuum operated or is it moved with a cable?

 

Ok, so the issue got fixed.

20 minutes in the shop and $71 later I found out it took a pound of freon and a fuse. Evidently the circuit that controls the blend door was blown. Silly me.

If a pound of freon a lot for a recharge?

 

I think a typical system uses 2-3 lbs altogether. the equipment used to empty and recharge the AC system doesn't usually measure what comes out. just what goes in. so they empty it, fill 'er up with new and just say 'you were a little low'.

BTW: a '98 would not be using freon (r12). It's r134a, a more environmentally friendly refrigerant thats slightly less efficent than freon, but also tends to leak out more quickly, from what i've read.

 

So to summarize -- the system in the car was running with appx 1/3 to 1/2 of its capacity gone? I'd say that would be a rather significant ''top off'' to add a full pound or so of 134 then....

Interesting.... thanks!

-Steve

 

Yes. If it took that much there is a leak that needs repair.