Hey guys I'm having a weird ac problem. My air conditioning blows ice cold air.... when it works. Lately every once in a while it will cut out. The fan is working but it's blowing hot air. If I leave it off for an bit and drive then try again in about 10 min it works again. It's baffling and I'm at a loss. What could the problem be?

 

Search for ac clutch repair. Likely you need to reshim the ac compressor clutch. It's a simple job that will save you in the summer heat

 

I would check the refrigerant first, easiest to rule out. If you have a shop you go to often they probably would not charge you or if they did it would not be very much. If they have the right equipment they can tell you how many lbs you have in the system.

 

It could be a relay as well. A quick test would be to pull the relay for your fog lights or something that shares a similar relay (not something mission essential, obviously) and slave that one in for a day. If it works without fail, r2 the relay (they're like $4 at Napa).

Just food for thought.

 

it could be as simple as need recharging... to compressor about to die on you...

 

Thanks for the suggestions. The weather here has kinda settled on the cooler side, so my ac hasn't really been used. When I do turn it on it has been working every time. I notice this more on really hot days, if I let the car idle with the ac on to cool off the interior. If I let it run for 10 min, it starts blowing hot. Could be a leak or maybe low charge.

Hopefully it's not the compressor going. I should have someone see if the clutch does in fact stop spinning to rule out a re-shim

 

My car did exactly the same thing about a month ago. I took it to a shop where they measured the pressures in the system which they said looked normal and asked me what I wanted done. Well, I had read the FSM and it said to pull out all the refrigerant and weigh it and then put back in the correct amount. I said do that. The result was it was a bit low - not unexpected after twelve years.

I'm not saying mine is fixed but so far it is cooling.

One thing that nobody mentions is that there is a refrigerant temperature sensor right on the compressor and it can go bad. This plus all the known clutch, pressure switch and wiring problems that do happen.

 

Just had this exact problem. After about 20 min. of driving it would blow hot air. My pressures were all ok and I recommend you check them first. My clutch air gap was WAY out of spec. Super quick and easy fix. And I can assure it solved the problem since two days after I corrected the air gap I drove 7 hours straight with cold air the entire trip. Good luck

 

What exactly is involved with doing the reshim? Ive found some threads on it but no one really talks about HOW to do it, just that it usually fixes this problem. Is there a specific spacer to use?