My '95 850T5 wagon is fitted with an Electronic Climate Control (ECC) A/C system. The weather in Australia is quite hot at the present time (+100 degrees)and I've noticed theengine coolant fandoes notrun all the timethe A/C is switched on. Thisworries me a bit therefore I'd liketo find out:

(a)if theengine cooling fan is supposed to run at all times the A/C is switched on, or is theengine cooling fan designed to switch on and off as required?

(b) if someone wouldlike to describe the sequence of eventsneeded to energisethe engine cooling fanwhen the A/C is on.

(c) ifanyone has a copy of the ECCcontrolcircuit they could post onto this forum or advise me where I can find this particular circuiton the internet.

 

To the best of my knowledge the fan is always on when the AC is turned on. The engine fan has two speeds high and low. Low will always be on with the AC, and high will come on everynow and then. IIRC the criteria for high is above 220F if AC is on.

My guess is that you have a bad relay.

I'm sorry if this doesn't make sense it's 6AM and I've been up for a good long while
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Volgrr,

The fan is controlled by the ECU but the ECC provides inputs to the ECU and, as info2x said, the fanshould be on anytime the a/c ison. I figured you have this one but but the schematics are here:

http://www.matthewsvolvosite.com/dow.../Volvo_850.zip

Unzip it and see the file named ac heater system auto.pdf.

I had a similar problem with my '94 and it turned out that the relay was OK but the connector had some corrosion that caused it to operate intermittently. I gave it a good shot of contact cleaner and it has been good to go ever since.

...Lee

 

Thanks to both info2x and Ozark Lee for your responses.

I think I have real (and expensive) problems with the whole A/C system now.

A couple of days ago a garage replaced theseized A/C compressor on my '95 T5 wagon andre-gassed the system. I drove about 80 klometres(48 miles) and now the replacement compressor ismaking strange noises and definitely not cooling.

I drove it to my son-in-law's house and we discovered, amongst many other thingsdone wrong, the plastic fitting on top of the radiatorthathold the various relays in place wasfitted back-to-front and possibly somecontrol wiring was reconnected incorrectly.

By the way - the garage charged me10.5 hours laborfor removing and refitting ofcompressors. I thoughtit wasa bit steep - what do you guys think?

P.S. Is it logical to bypass the compressor (e.g. shorter belt) until I come to grips with (and save up for) what is actually needed?

 

Things are now starting to make sense. I'm sorry for the labor charges for you, 10.5 hours is outrageous and I work in my driveway with whatever tools I have or what I can fabricate and I can do the job in half that time.

As I look at the schematic the signal to turn on the A/Cgoes to the ECU but the signals from the pressure switches also go there. I'm not privy to the firmware nor the hardware in the ECU itself but my guess is that, if the A/C is not actually building appropriate pressure and turning on the compressor then the fan won'tmay not automatically turn on.

On my daughter's Porsche the fan comes on anytime the A/C button is depressed and it hasn't seen freon in 20 years but from her schematic the low pressure switch and high pressure switch simply kill the compressor.

...Lee

 

Thanks Ozark Lee,

I always feel more at easeafter reading your well thought-out, common sense replies.

 

The most common problem when the fan doesn't come on is a bad High pressure switch. Which is located infront of the fill valve. There is 3 wires going to it.

As for the labor WTF They need to be shot.

That job is like a 3 hour job.

Why did they remove the relay cover?
They didn't need to touch it.

I would take it back and make them fix everything to work out a deal that they pay to have you take it somewhere else to get it fixed.

I would be there with the shotgun in hand making sure all was fixed!!!


Sorry for the rant but when I hear stuff like this it really Pisses me of and make me say things like this
SHAJ sfhjk;fhqwer;jfwero;ajfgierajgaer' jfeqwr;te;jatfo'awejrtfjwq'!!!!!!!!!!!! (LOL)
But really people like that really give a Good Techs a bad name!!!

 

+1.

>SHAJ sfhjk;fhqwer;jfwero;ajfgierajgaer' jfeqwr;te;jatfo'awejrtfjwq'!!!!!!!!!!!!
Agreed.


JPN

 

Thanks Tech and JPN for responding.

I've been in contact with the owner of the business which islocated about 400 kilometres (240 miles) away from where I live.

I took delivery of the car just prior to a long weekend - and I guess that gave me a window of opportunity to carefully catalogue all the faults and touch-base with people like yourselves on various Volvo Forums for opnions and information.

As stated in an earlier post, my son-in-law is now oversighting the car being repaired. Heowns a panel beating shop and consequently has many contacts in the motor repair trade.

After getting over my initial anger (where I found it difficult to think clearly) I've decided the best strategy to resolve this issue on a series of levels and, depending on reaction, go to the next level. Some of the steps may be:

Step 1 Contactowner of the business toestablish his position.
Step 2 Gather data andexpert opinions.
Step 3 Report from garages involved now with getting the car back on the road.
Step 4 Written report to Automobile Club, giving them a detailed report of what I have experienced as a member by their nominated local repairer.
Step 5 Legal action.

I have already implemented step 1 and the owner has, so far, been very accomodating. He was horrified at the litany of mistakes made by his mechanics, and says he willensure I'm not out of pocket(just whatever that implies) and he wants to be kept informedhow repairs to the car are progressing.

It is pretty important to mention here that I supplied the garage with a compressor (used - supplied with 3 month warranty) and a brand-new serpentine belt which my son-in-law obtainedfrom a Volvo garage near his panel shop.

Themajor pointthiswhole issue revolves around is thattheplace where the vehicle was re-gassedtold methey wouldn't, under any circumstances,gone ahead andre-gassed the system if they'd knownthe re-gassing was a consequence of a seized compressor i.e. unless they thoroughly purged the systemandchanged the receiver/drier and TXL valve.

When I told the garage owner this, he admitted he would'vehadthis additional workcarried out if it was anew compressor beinginstalled, but did not consider it necessary to do on asecond-hand compressor but, when pressed why not, he couldn't give a convincing answer why he made this distinction. Hewent on to sayhe even thought about contacting me tosuggest this work be done but, for whatever reason, didn't.

He simply had no answerwhen it was put to him thatthe person who eventually pays the account (i.e. the client)should beadvised -and it should be theownerwho then makes the decision toeither accept or reject this critical advice.

Anyway, I'm waiting for further information from the garages undertaking the repair work on my vehicle and willpass this information onto the garage ownerto see his reactionwhen big$$$$ startgetting mentioned.

Thanks for your input.

Keep your fingers crossed for me.

 

Please keep us posted I want to know what happened.

 

That is my intention. As things develop I'll let all you guys know. Hopefully I trust the whole sordid mattermight be resolved in the next week or two.

However, things just keep coming out ofleft field. The auto elecs are now conductingtests to establishif thegarage might havemanaged to frigthe ECU that interactswith the EEC - as very little of the EEC (read nearlyzero) seems to be working the way it should.

P.S. When I asked the garage where the missing air inlet pipes had got to - they didn't even know what I was talking about! $@&&!0(%**!