My 2000 S80 did something strange the other day.I was out in about town on a very hot afternoon , 107 was the outside temp. The A/C blowing really cold and car engine temp was fine.No problems.I was shopping and had been away from my car for about 15-20 mins.When I returned as soon as I started the car up Freon was coming from under my hood and lasted 30 secs. or so, and then stoped ,car engine temp was fine and I proceeded to leave,turn a/c back on and still was and is nice and cold .I cannot figure out why my system released all that freon out. Has this happen to anyone else and if so ,Why? It's has not happen since then ,driving under the same conditions.Thanks.

 

What makes you believe it was Freon that was blowing out from under your hood?

 

well , Freon just has that smell .I'm positive that what it was.I'm thinking and this is just a guess ,is that maybe it had a little to much freon in the system and reach a certain temp & the system released excesss (air,freon,?) out from a relief valve or something of that sort.

 

A system with no leaks should not "vent" out refrigerant. Also, I have to correct myself and expand, just to clarify, the system in your vehicle and all modern vehicles is not R-12 which is normally identified as Freon, it is R-134a and is called refrigerant.

 

The cooling fan might be bad causing excessive high pressure causing it to blow out.

 

Tech, is there a way to check if the cooling fan is going bad?Since this happen ive had no problems at all and it was 106 today. I still say that maybe ther was to much freon in there and with it being extra hot it release it .That's 134a, no r12 (does anyone still use r12?Anyway check out this link it's almost what happen to me but i added 134a last year..http://www.matthewsvolvosite.com/cha...?p=27705#27705
Thanks guys.

 

Sure you don't have a coolant expansion tank issue/cap issue?

 

The EPA realt frowns on venting refridgerant,
also I beleive the system is equiped with an overpresure
switch which shuts off the compressor if set point
is exeeded.

 

Like i mention before .I return to my car from shopping ,started it and a sec later freon escaping from under my hood (drivers side )100% SURE it was refrig.30 secs of it.Out of my control ,so the EPA can go frown somewhere else.But in the meantime i sure would be interested why it did this.I added a little bit of 134a last summer because it needed it and been using the a\c quite a bit between then and now.Since it happen it has not done anything like that .The a/c been working great (and it's been hot here)i'm a strong believer in the saying (ain't broken don't fix it)but my warranty will be ending soon a would hate fork out the cash.has to be a reason this happen. The only lolgical reason to me is what Tech said about the cooling fan being bad causing excessive high pressure causing it to blow out.

 

There will be a point in time if this holds true that your AC system will no longer be cooling your cabin... 30 seconds is a long enough burst, twice now, to make me believe that you're going to lose ability to cycle the system.

 

Can a shop be able to confirm that my system is on it's last leg & needs to be replaced? Like I mention before i would love for it to bad while it's still under my ex-warr. which expires this Feb. 2010. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.Thanks

 

I'd say that between now and 2/2010, you'll know. You'd be better served having it diagnosed now versus having a catastrophic failure later.

 

Is it common for the a/c system go bad after so many miles?My s80 is reaching 100,000 on it.l love the car but if i'm going to have to start replacing parts like crazy once i'm over that 100,000 mark i'll trade it in or something.

 

The cooling fan should come on within a few seconds of turning the A/C on.

 

Tech, is that a given.So no matter what the cars temp. is ,rather the engine's hot or cold as soon as i hit the a/c the cooling fan should turn on.Thanks

 

Yes it should turn on no matter what. The fan keeps the High pressure down by cooling the condenser.

 

Hi,
did you ever figure out if the cooling fan was indeed the problem?

I'm asking because I have the same problem, and it drives me crazy, can't find the culprit.