Okay gang. I'm having 2 separate issues with my 98 3.0 that I believe are related. First, at idle the RPMs jump bout 100-200 and then drop again. The drop is accompanied by a clicking from the engine compartment I narrowed down to a little cog or something in the top right pulley for the belt. When it clicks, it stops turning. Not the whole pulley I don't think, just the little cog. Now the clicks are more frequent when my AC is turned up. Which leads to the second issue. My AC isn't blowing cold anymore. If I start on the low setting, it'll get kinda cool and then I can turn the blower up. If I start at a higher speed, it stays luke warm. I recharged the refrigerant 3 weeks ago and that seemed to solve it for a little while. Except the RPM thing, that never went away just wasn't as pronounced. So now I notice as the Georgia summer heats up, I'm staying that way cause of the AC. I don't know anything about the system except how to recharge it, which I've only done once. My mechanically inclined father-in-law is also not familiar with it. Any ideas? If so, what's it going to cost me? I'm hoping its just a leak somewhere and not my AC going belly up for the second time in my trucks 9 years. Can I use a can of that stop leak stuff and recharge it or is that a: snake oil b:the Dutch Boy putting his finger in the dike?

I should note I had the truck in a few months back to get the fuel filter changed. I know, I know. I could do it myself but I didn't have the time and it needed doing. They told me that the coolant system and brakes need to flushed. Also, the throttle body needed cleaning. And their "stuff works", not the snake oil at the store. Oh yeah, they took the throttle body apart to check it to see if it needed cleaning. Then want to charge me $85 to take it apart and clean it. Hello? You already took it apart. Just charge me for the 10 minutes it takes to clean it. I didn't ask ya to take it apart and check it.

 

That's strange. How many miles on your ranger?

My 3.0 surges a little once in a while, but I don't have that clicking noise that you described. Actually on mine the idle rpms drop a little and then come back up once in a while - I think its the IAC valve (idle air control) acting strange. It doesn't do it enough to bother me - it never stalled out or acted up for an extended period of time. I have about 136,000+ now on my ranger.

Have you tried taking the serpentine belt off and checking that pulley for wear or slop in the bearings or shaft ?

 

That little cog you are talking about is your a/c compressor clutch. Its doing this because you are probably low on refidgerant. You might also have a leak somewhere. Try turning your a/c off, temperature to warm, and put the other switch to "vent" dont have anything on defrost, NO DEFROSTERS. now listen and see if the clicking is still there. Let me know what you hear. If you still hear clicking and stuff then you might have a compressor/clutch problem, if not then just fill er up with some R134a with leak stopper in it and see if that does the trick!

Try the leak stopper first, ALso look around if you have any wet/oily spots on the top of your hood or anything. When the compressor went bad on my ranger it got on the belt and flung it all over the engine compartment.

I'd say the idle thing is the IAC.

 

Peter: The clicking was still there. I went ahead and picked up another can of r134a and stop leak to run through it tomorrow. I just hope it's not the compressor again. I've already had that thing replaced once. Is the clutch an easy job for a relative noob?
Just for reference I have 169000 miles on it.

 

c: Stop leak, like dye, is a product that has a history of occasionanly clogging the orifice tube and because of this I will find and fix the leak correctly rather than attempt to band-aid it.

If you went from proper charge to where the system is not performing and is displaying evidence of low charge (esp in just a few short weeks), you should find a trace of oil around the leak area. Also, a shot of dish soap into a glass of water produces a mixture that is useful for finding leaks. Apply, wait, and watch carefully for very small bubbles. Be patient as you do this. I would venture to guess you have a bad o-ring somewhere. Since they are cheap and easy to replace, I would replace all of them when you have the system drained. Evacuate, recharge the system, and you're done .

 

Also keep in mind that as you add refrigerant to the system to replace the leaking mixture, you are replacing it with pure R134, that has no oil in it. If this has been a practice you've used for a while, I'd venture a guess this may be the underlying reason you've had so much trouble with your air conditioning in the past. I agree fully with Billy, have the system checked/check it yourself, but don't try to patch it. And BTW, rapid cycling of the clutch is a sign of low refrigerant, not a bad compressor clutch, but incidentally, the clutch is a relatively easy job. Just a suggestion, you might consider having this problem professionally fixed, which will save you money in the long run (IE no more ruined compressors), and spend the saved time doing your next fuel filter change, which will also save you money. Messing with things you only partially understand is how you end up spending more money trying to do it yourself...

 

I've only recharged it myself once. It is not a regular habit. I've only had trouble in the past...once.The bad compressor was long before this. The only way to learn something is to try it ya know. Yes, it could make the problem worse. Plus it would help to have someone who knows what they're doing help you the first time. My father in law and I could spend the afternoon fighting with it but I'll probably just get it done professionally. Although I've learned alot here and with the ole Haynes manual, I recognize that this is job that is best done by someone whose name is followed by ASE Certified. Hopefully it won't cost more than a few hundred bucks, which is less than it would cost if I frakked up my whole AC system. It also helps that I can't find my hose and gauge for recharging it.

 

I'd say your best bet right now is to simply inspect each connection for the presence of an oily residue. It needn't be a lot either and slow leaks don't always render much oil depending on the connector location and especially if the A/C isn't used much. After that, use the soap method I noted earlier. This is all a freebie and it won't take a whole lot of time. Wouldn't you be happy to find a leaking connection and then know what the problem was? At that point you could decide if you want to tackle it yourself or surrender to a shop. But at least you know what the problem is.

 

I took a little look see under the hood today. Looks like there's some residue on the side of the accumulator. I'm going to take a more detailed look and try the dish water test tomorrow.

 

I dont like "professionals" handling my stuff. Last time i took my Ranger in for the a/c, they said it was just low and refilled it. took it in again 1 week later, they refilled it for free and said there might be a leak, but to drive it around again and come back in 1 week. I just opened the hood myself, saw all the crap from the compressor, went to a junkyard and got a used one for 50 bucks, put it on and its been good for 2 years now. Just saying look at the other side of things, yeah you can waste alot of money, but you can also save alot of money too.

Here's my question though, if he had his a/c off, defrosters off, why is the clutch still cycling?

 

I was wondering the same thing.

The only two positions that that year ('98 and up, and perhaps older than that -95 maybe?) will not cycle the A/C in are "Vent only," and "Off." I kinda miss the old setup, where you could use any vent setting you wanted, and just push the button for A/C.

 

I was unable to locate any leaks myself so I took it to the shop today. They couldn't find any serious leaks. They completely recharged it and ran the dye in it. Said to come back in a fwe days and they'll check to see if there's any smaller leaks running around. Crossin my fingers...and toes.

 

UPDATE:
Well, less than 2 months later and its back. Exact same symptomology. They checked after I'd had the dye in for a week and found no leaks. I guess its a little leak that will soon get, or is already, bigger. I'm going to go back and ask that they re-test, gratis I hope, to see if they can find it now. It's dang hot down here and I get grumpy when I get hot.

 

Okay, more developments. I went out this morning to check the pressure on the system. Granted its cool out this morning, but when I started it up it blew almost cold. I went to check the pressure on the low side and had a hard time getting the cap of the port. It was sticky and there was sticky stuff on top of the condenser. I got the cap off and noticed a green fluid in the port part. I'm guessing its refrigerant and not coolant. I just don't know what color the refrigerant is. All I know is that this sounds like a bad thing. Could the shop have overfilled the system somehow? Didn't get to check the pressure because my gauge was broken. So does that info help any of my Ranger buds get a better idea of the problem. I'l lbe headed over to the shop later today.

 

The refrigerant is colorless. The green fluid you see is the dye they added to the system. It's possible it's leaking from the schrader valve in that port (which is easy to miss if you don't know what you're doing because you often have the A/C gauges hooked up while checking for leaks) or it may be residue from when they added the dye.

Spray some soap water into the port and watch for bubbles... I like to spray.. then lightly blow it out because mounted horizontally like that just watching it drip out sometimes can look like it's leaking.. then watch it for a few minutes and see if any new bubbles develop.