My wife’s 2000 V70 has an A/C problem. The A/C works fine when the car is idling in the driveway. I’ve left the car idling for as long as 10 minutes and the A/C continues to run, but almost as soon as I put itin drive and take off down the street, the A/C cuts out. Does anyone have any thoughts as to what’s going on?

This problem started last year while were on vacation. The A/C didn't work while where driving around town, but it worked for 8 hours straight on the way homewhile driving on theinterstate.

The dealer says it the compressor and wants $1000 to replace it.

I've seen several post similar to this on this forum, but I've never seen a definitive answer.

 

I'm no expert and I'm sure tech will have a good answer for you, but I was fighting the a/c in my 99 V70 for a bit recently.

When you say it cuts out, I assume you mean it's not cold any more. Air is still being blown, right? It would make sense (to me at least) for it to be the compressor. If the compressor stops, the refrigerant is no longer pulled through the system, so you wouldn't have cold air. I'd guess that it would have something to do with the change in resistance on the belt or something due to shifting into gear. On the highway, the resistance would be pretty steady (not accelerating rapidly) and the compressor might start working again.

Anyway, I'm not good at diagnosing problems, I'll leave that to tech - I'm sure he'll give you some good advice. However, if it is the compressor, I do have recent experience in changing that out and I put a post up that went through some of the steps and prices I paid for parts. Feel free to let me know if you have any questions about doing it yourself. My shop was estimating $1300 to change mine though. I think if you do it (right) yourself, you can probably do it for around $600 - 700 and in a day or two (with breaks).

 

Yes, air is still blowing butthe air isnot cold.

As an update, my wife told me that the air was working this morning when the outside air temp was probably in the low 70's as apposed to the low 90'swe've been running later in the day. So it seems that the A/Cruns when there's a low demand on the system.

 

The clutch gap is way to big.
The clutch is over heating and shutting down.

Due to the excessive gap when it gets hot the magnetic field cannot hold it anymore.

Thats why it works when it is cool outside.

Yes you need either a new compressor (Getting clutch replaced is almost as much as a new compressor)
Or find someone that will remove the compressor and reshim it.

 

See, I told you tech would have a better answer. As I said before, feel free to ask me if you try this out on your own and run into any difficulties.

 

https://volvoforums.com/m_34431/tm.htm
Here is a post I made about reshimming it.
But I had it off the car already.
I also have a special tool I use now as well.

 

Thanks for you help guys. I've got a good friend that is willing to take on replacing the compressor. I'd like to say that I'll be helping, but I'd be the most help by getting out of his way.

99VolvoV70 -

I saw your write up, how close is the 1999 to the 2000?

One more question.I went to the DiscountACParts site and noticed that under compressors for the 2000 V70 there are two choices-

"Ear mount only - bolts go into ears off housing"

or

"Direct bolt mount only - bolts go into housing".

How can I find out which one I need. I noticed in your writeup that you had bought the wrong one initially and I'd like to avoid that for obvious reasons.If I had to guess, it probably depends on the engine. In our case we havethe non-turbo.

 

First of all, glad to hear you'll try it yourself - it's really not too bad and I say it's worth saving money. The main thing that frustrated me was the lack of help in the Haynes manual. It just had a bunch of warnings about working with refrigerant and then said in light of that, it would have no directions for replacing the major a/c components. That's annoying because I just found a local shop to "recover" the refrigerant for $20 then it was the same as any other job. By the way, the instructions for what to do to not void the warranty on the compressor were pretty helpful as well. I also had a diagram of an a/c system (such as this one)so that I would be able to figure out where the high/low pressure sides were for example.

As for your questions:
Ear mount vs direct mount...

I got screwed up because I trusted the mechanic that I had initially taken the car to. I asked them for the part number and the one they gave me turned out to be ear mount, but when I got in there to look at it, that was the wrong part. Unfortunately, I was on a business trip when I ordered the parts, so I couldn't verify it for myself.

Anyway, I had called Direct AC about it and they were very helpful. They said it actually doesn't depend on the engine type or anything, it seems somewhat arbitrary (probably what factory the car came from or something). The way to find out is to try and take a look at the compressor yourself.

If you can't see the attached picture,picture the wheel (pulley, gear, whatever it's called) rotating around a shaft. If the bolts run parallel to that shaft, it is an ear mount compressor, if the bolts run perpendicular to the shaft, it is a direct mount compressor.

In the pictures, the white arrows correspond to direct mount (which is the one I had) and the red arrows are ear mount.

By the way, the bolts run a long way and it took a bit of repositioning of the compressor and nearby piping, etc to get one of the bolts out.

As for the similarities between the 2000 and '99, I don't know. I'd guess it's probably pretty much the same, but you never know (I've never seen a 2000 - I've only worked on my '99.) Maybe tech can help here again.

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