this just screams people comming in, not reading this very sentence and saying "search" but I did.

Ok my airconditioner gave no sign of failing at all. Just today I was driving around in traffic for about 20 minutes then I got out o ftraffic and (genious me thought of this ASFTER the car was sitting in traffic) I decided to turn on the A/C. Well I drove for about 5 minutes noticing that it was far from cold in the car and I put my hand in front of the vent and to my surprise (with the temp slider all the way on cold and the fan slider about halfway) that the air coming out as hot. Not warm but really hot like th eheater was on. It was set to vent to the dash vents and the "A/C" button was pushed as well. So tell me the bad news, what is wrong with my A/C? Does it need a charge (wouldn't this show signs of failing?) or did all the refrigerant leak out? or is my temperature controlling slider broken? what is most likely the problem? Any help would be appreciated, thnaks.

 

Quick response, a couple of checks:
First item to check is the compressor. Does it engage when a/c button pressed? If it does, and continues to run, and line gets very cold, and the sightglass is clear of bubbles, then the incoming air is being heated. If no, and you don't have gauges, I would remove a cap and tap the shraeder valve (car off and system stabilized for a minute) very quickly to see if any gas in system. If there is gas released when schrader pushed, you won't harm the compressor when you jump the low pressure switch to get the compressor running and check the sightglass for bubbles. If there are a great number of bubbles in the sightglass when compressor running, it needs freon.

 

ok well here's an update, it worked today again.But I only ran it for a few minutes then turned it off for fear of it braking. I'm going to bookmakr this link and do the checks if it goes screwy another time. Thanks.

 

Alright.

Has your A/C been converted from the old freon to the new R134a refrigerant? If so, you might want to have it checked for leaks. Considering yours randomly started working again, I'm going to GUESS that your compressor or a control or a fuse is on it's way out.

My brother had a '95 Jeep Cherokee, and his A/C would work intermittently. It'd be blasting ice cubes one minute, then the blower and everything would stop working for random amounts of time before ever more randomly kicking back in.

I vote for it being electrical. It's like flying on airlines: Expect the worst, hope for the best.

This is really random, but try unplugging your battery for like an hour. No questions, just do it.

 

Oooh my god. You know what? I just realized that this is you, Chris! hahaha...