Air conditioner

Tiny
ALI GARCIA
  • MEMBER
  • 1995 FORD EXPLORER
  • MANUAL
  • 108,000 MILES
The air conditioner will not turn on on, we put Freon in it, but it is still blowing hot air. What can we do to fix this?
Friday, June 17th, 2016 AT 5:52 PM

5 Replies

Tiny
CARADIODOC
  • MECHANIC
  • 33,916 POSTS
First it has to be diagnosed. Could be over-charged, under-charged, air conditioner compressor clutch could be open, fuse for clutch could be blown, refrigerant system could be fine and the problem is with the actuators in the dash, the HVAC Computer could be defective.
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Friday, June 17th, 2016 AT 6:00 PM
Tiny
ALI GARCIA
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  • 3 POSTS
It is blowing hot, the clutch clicks on, then clicks right off, the pressure is good because it is not making noise, so would any of that you told me be a cause of this?
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Friday, June 17th, 2016 AT 6:14 PM
Tiny
ALI GARCIA
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It is blowing strong I mean, but just hot.
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Friday, June 17th, 2016 AT 6:15 PM
Tiny
CARADIODOC
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Yup. There are dozens of things that could be wrong with dozens of different symptoms.

"the pressure is good cause it' s not making noise"

I am not sure what parallels you're drawing but there is not any connection between those two things. Pressures are a funny thing. Half of the refrigerant is a liquid and half is a vapor. If you were to bleed off some of the vapor in an attempt to lower the pressure, some of the liquid would turn to vapor, expand, and the pressures would go right back up. That would keep on occurring as long as there was some liquid left in the system, so it can be 99 percent empty, and still have good pressures. You can not judge pressures in the system by guessing or those little toy gauges on recharge cans. You need a professional set of gauges on a charging station to see what is happening in the system.

Only Chrysler vehicles have a sight glass to tell if the system is low on charge. If you see bubbles flowing through the glass, it is low. Ford started using a sight glass too, but it is not as effective. There will be bubbles in the sight glass even when the system is properly charged, so it isn't of much use. In fact, it is possible to over-charge the system by trying to clear up the bubbles.

If you have a leak in the system and it was real low on charge, the compressor will kick on and off rapidly thanks to a low-pressure cutoff, (safety) switch. If the system is over-charged, that liquid can slosh out of the dash and find its way into the compressor where it will lock it up and often destroy it. Compressors can only handle a vapor, so the refrigerant must have turned into a vapor by the time it gets there.

You can have an actuator problem where the heater box is staying switched to "hot" air. The compressor could be switched off because it has already developed enough pressure for the system's demands.

Basically what you have said so far is like telling my doctor "I am in pain". Without a long list of symptoms, observations, and test results, he does not know if I have a hang nail, cut my foot off with a chain saw, or my ex-girlfriend came back.
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Friday, June 17th, 2016 AT 6:34 PM
Tiny
JIS001
  • MECHANIC
  • 3,411 POSTS
You can do a simple test to check the low pressure sensor on the accumulator. Disconnect the sensor and using a paper clip jump the two pins. If the compressor kicks on and blows cold then the pressure switch needs to be replace. Very common problem on these Fords. Attached photo. #6 is the pressure switch. Hope this helps.
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Friday, June 17th, 2016 AT 7:37 PM

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