Monday A.M. and I just called the shop and they assured me that they open up the book and check the spec on any vehicle they service (which would only make perfect sense). They said to jumper it and drive down the road and see if the system blows ice cold.

O.K. I jumped the plug and drove down the road. Periods of ice cold and then slight cool. 10 mile road test. Popped the hood and compressor clutch still enguaged. So I pull on the throttle wire a little and the compressor intermittantly kicks off and then when I up the rpms, it shuts off all together. When I bring it back to idle, the compressor stays off. I think once when the cooling fan came on, it kicked back on.

It's still jumpered for the time being so it will kind of work but I don't know whether to put back on the switch. Seems like enough freon (I think) since it will blow ice sometimes. Too much, I don't know.

Both switches bad? These boogers are like $65.00 each? Tempting since it would elliminate the possibilities. Is there an ohm test or something for the high pressure switch?

I don't know what to make of this.


-Adam...who likes a nice lawn but want's nothing to do with gardening...

 

no the reason i said something about the evaporator is cause they are known for going bad. I have seen several 850's the the evaporators leak bad enough that the car gets a A/C charge and loses almost all of it over night. With that being said if it's low(leaking) then the compressor will cycle on and off. This includes at idle clutch engaged and accel the clutch will kick out. I would blacklight the system. The way to check the evaporator is to run the black light over the heat shield for the cat converter. If you see green between the heat shield and the body of the car then the evaporator is you problem.

 

I'll see if I can't find a black light. The only reason I was ruling it out was because it held an overcharge for almost two years prior to being evacuated and recharged last Friday. I have considered doing some other things. Replace both switches (expensive) and adding some more freon to see if the problem goes away except I thought the high pressure switch would kick off from too much pressure due to an over charge and a lack of freon would make the high pressure switch less likely to kick out but what do I know? First things first, black light.

FOLLOW UP.

I bought one of those uv lights at autozone and poked around. The only dye I see is around the recharge port, the high pressure switch port and the low pressure switch port from swapping sensors. None by the fire wall and on the back of the compressor, there appears to be some sort of port that glows but it looks like residual.

I'm wondering about buying on of the recharge kits and filling the system up to a certain pressure to see what happens but I'm not sure what the pressure would need to be. The kit I'm thinking has the guage with the dial to adjust the max pressure. It's that zero cold or something like that from autozone.

I'm also contemplating buying a pair of switches at $60.00 a pop. If it's got a serious leak in the condensor or evaporator or what ever, I don't want to sink $120 + in it now since it may be months before I could fix a high dollar part.

Only reason this is so important is that the headliner is falling and when the windows are down, it blows stuff in your eyes (actually my 18 year old daughters) from the crap up above it.

-Adam

 

Did you happen to test for power at the compressor when the A/C was not working?(clutch not on when switch on?)

 

No I didn't and I'm not exactly sure how. I'm afraid to sink $120 + in parts when I have no income so I'm trying to verify what parts are bad for sure. I'm 99% sure the low pressure switch is bad, not sure on high pressure switch, and still, not sure if replacing both will be the solution. If I knew for sure that the evaporator or condensor or whatever was still good (and possibly the aftermarket replacement), I would buy the two switches.

Maybe you can tell me exactly how to test it. I have one of those harbor freight multimeters so I would need to know where to connect probes and which function to test under. It's the cheapie $10.00 cintech model.

Thanks for everyone's help and sorry for dragging this out. Adam

 

You can use the meter or even a test light if you have one. There is a green wire on the compressor. That goes directly to the clutch. When it starts blowing warm if using the meter ground the black terminal and with the red lead probe the green wire and see if you have 12 volts. If you do then the clutch gap is most likely to big and it needs to be reshimmed. If using a test light ground the wire lead and probe the green wire and if the light lights up it needs to be reshimmed.