Air conditioning not working
 

Hi folks,

Seeing issues with air conditioning in my '98 V70 AWD T5. It does not blow cold air anymore. How should I start troubleshooting it. I do not want to assume that the refrigerant is low or the compressor has died or something else is wrong with, say, a thermostat for example. Is there a checklist or step-by-step procedure that I can follow to isolate the problem and fix it? These are the symptoms:
1. does not blow cold air
2. I do not hear many clicks and certainly not rapid clicks like someone mentioned about 2 clicks per second which indicated low refrigerant

Thanx!

RE: Air conditioning not working
 

Here is a link to where tech helped me:

https://volvoforums.com/m_30486/tm.htm

RE: Air conditioning not working
 

Thanx Jim! Also I found some help on google:

http://www.wikihow.com/Fix-Cars-Air-Conditioning

RE: Air conditioning not working
 

After reading the above link, I just checked it out. I started the car, switched on the a/c and looked under the hood - the clutch seems to be engaging fine. It engages and disengages every 1 second. So I guess:

1. possibility of low refrigerant and thus any leaks is ruled out
2. compressor is in good shape

What's next? Pls do not tell me it could be the evaporator.

RE: Air conditioning not working
 

OK I won't tell you that. Have you tried putting a can of coolant in it to see if it quits coming on and off so fast. I checked on the price fo an evaporator yesterday. My independent Volvo shop want $1300, and the dealer wants $1500. I put an $8.00 can of R134A in it before leaving work last night and it was cool all the way home and worked again coming to work this morning. My son and I are considering doing the evaporator, but we are not certain that's the problem. I bought a black light and will check that this weekend. The evaproator kit at the dealer is $462.60 and I get 15% off due to being a VCOA member so that makes it $393.21. My guess is it would take us about 3 days to do the work. We're slow, but we do good work.

RE: Air conditioning not working
 

When I start the car, LEDs on the recirculation and AC ON buttons on the climate control flash for a while before they go steady. Is this normal? I read somewhere that this is normal; the LEDs flashing indicates the system is doing some initial checks. But now in the V70 owner's manual, I am reading that when these LEDs flash for about 20 secs, there is a problem with the electronic climate control unit. So which one is true?I have been seeing them flash for few seconds (haven't timed so don't know if it is 20 secs) when I start the car.

Thanx!

RE: Air conditioning not working
 

I have seen mine do that when everything is working fine. On the other hand mine does not work well at all right now and they don't flash at all. You probably need to take it somewhere and have it checked. The problem is that alone is very expensive. I called a local shop and asked how much it would be to check for and identify if I need an evaporator or not. The want over $200 just to diagnose the problem. I wouldn't hesitate to get a can of refrigerant and trying it to see what happens. It's pretty easy to do, and the whole kit was only $25.00 with the can of R134A with die.

RE: Air conditioning not working
 

I tried that and - Voila! - the a/c blows ice now. It was an issue with low refrigerant. Thanx for all the advice and references. I hope it runs cold the next few days so I can safely assume that there are no leaks anywhere.

RE: Air conditioning not working
 

If you put R134A in and it got cold, there is a leak. Let's just hope it's a slow leak. Mine lasted less than a week. I really don't want to spend the money for the evaporator, but my guess is that's the problem and tech thinks so too.