I took my car in for service about 3 weeks ago. They put in a new oxygen sensor, new egr solenoid, new thermostat, flushed the radiator, cleaned out all the carbon in the egr system, to get rid of the service engine soon light that was flashing egr insufficient flow code, I had an oil leak and it was leaking on the starter so I got the starter replaced and got the front and back seals replaced to fix the oil leak, other things were leaking too so they had to pull out the transmision and seal the others, I think it was rear main seal, oil pan drain plug, throttle body gasket, transaxle seal, I think that was the output axle shaft seal they said they replaced. After all of this the car was running great until about a week ago. The air conditioning stopped working and man it's hot in South Carolina right now. I want to know if there is something simple that I can check myself without having to take it into the shop again because I just put alot of money into it.

This is what I have done so far. I figured that it was out of freeon so I went to walmart and bought the recharge kit. Well it was in the red when I hooked it up because the compressor was not kicking on. The green light was flashing on the air conditioner dial on the inside of the car so I let the car sit for a while to cool down and I called someone that I know that is a service writer at a dealership but he couldn't look at it cause he lives in another state. He said to follow the tubes or pipes where I hooked up the freeon down until I seen some plugs and to check the connectors on those plugs. I did that and then crawled under the car and wiggled the two plugs that were buy the compressor. Thought maybe the oil leak caused a bad connection. Then I started the car and the green light went solid so I hooked up the freeon and I put just a little bit in because the guage showed that it was fully charged. Air worked great and I thought my problem was solved. My friend said that he thought it was a loose connection on the cable and if it happened again to unplug the cable and bend the pins a little with a small screwdriver to give it a tighter fit.

The next day air worked and in the middle of the day it stopped working again. Now I have discovered that the air works great every morning and every night but it will not work at all during the day when it's hot outside. If the car just sits and it's hot outside when I start the car up I get the flashing green light but in the evening after the car cools down the air works great and in the morning when I start it up the green light is solid and it works great.

Please tell me this has happened to someone else and there is something that you can tell me to check to get my air working again during the day because it is so hot.

Thank you for your time reading all of this just wanted to make sure you have the details.

You probably just need to recharge the AC.

I did recharge the ac with the freeon I bought at walmart it's fully charged.

Become familiar with the major components to auto air conditioning:

the compressor, which compresses and circulates the refrigerant in the system
the refrigerant, (on modern cars, usually a substance called R-134a older cars have r-12 freon which is becoming increasingly more expensive and hard to find, and also requires a license to handle) which carries the heat
the condenser, which changes the phase of the refrigerant and expels heat removed from the car
the expansion valve (or orifice tube in some vehicles), which is somewhat of a nozzle and functions to similtaneously drop the pressure of the refrigerant liquid, meter its flow, and atomize it
the evaporator, which transfers heat to the refrigerant from the air blown across it, cooling your car
the receiver/dryer, which functions as a filter for the refrigerant/oil, removing moisture and other contaminants

it could be anything, you might want a mechanic to check it out for you, at least diagnose the problem and maybe u can fix it yourself.

Thanks

I was calling it freon because I just remember it being called that back in the day. I didn't realize that it's called refrigerant on the newer cars.

I'll take it into the shop and see what the mechanic says if no one else has any ideas what to check.

this is christy's husband, when the ac is not working is the clutch engaged? and if it is not check battery power(12v or more) at the connector to the compressor. if there is power at the compressor and is not engaged its a bad compressor. if there is no power and is not engaged it can get complicated. let me know what you find. and give christy a call and i'll take a look at it sunday.

its probably just your AC pump. not everything is as difficult as it seems. everyone can try to get technical about this, but the fact is, with AC units the most common problems are 1. freon is low. 2. AC pump is bad. 3. electrical problem.

the only one you need to worry about really is if its a electrical problem.

obviously its not Freon. if its the AC pump unit, might i suggest
http://www.car-part.com
find the least expensive part there that is close to you. (the further the part the more the shipping will cost)

if you take it into a electrical specific shop the can test your AC unit for a very cheap reasonable price. if it is bad they will tell you what need to be fixed, if it is not bad then your clutch in your AC pump is screwed and the unit need to be replaced.

i hope that helps you better.

What was the high side and low side pressure of your A/C system before and after you installed the R134a? How much did you use? I'm willing to bet you didn't bleed the air out of the line before you charged it so you probably have air in your system and/or have it overcharged and that's why it only works when it's cool is because there's too much pressure on the high side causing the pressure sensor to disengage the A/C clutch to protect the system from exploding. The air contaminating the system could also have ruined any number of parts on your A/C system. If this happened then you most likely have to replace your Dryer and Expansion Valve. Then vacuum out the system and add the exact amount of 134A that the system calls for while not forgetting to purge the line of air.

Hope this helps.

its not a good idea to just charge the ac system with freon when you havent checked the system for leaks, and havent vacuumed out any moisture that could be in the system. i would take it to an a/c specialist to have your system checked out

well i had a chance to look at his eclipse because he works with my wife. i did evac and charged the system, it didn't work because there were no leaks. i did notice his AC belt was very worn out and those compressors have a revolution counter. so i replaced the belt about two weeks ago and talked to him 6 26 08 thursday and he said it has been fine and we ve had some hot days in CHARLESTON, SC.