Air Conditioning

From: "Brian K. Dore'" <bkd@usl.edu>

Subject: Re: AC died

>One minute, it was working. The next minute, it wasn't. Fan stayed running. Air simply stopped being cold. When I push the AC button on and >off, the compressor does not kick in. Is this a fuse thing or am I in deeper?

First thing to notice is if the ecu compensates for the compressor by raising the idle or not. If the idle jumps when you press the A/C switch then it's probably the low freon shutoff like Sam described. Its inline with the aluminum A/C plumbing on the passenger side of the engine compartment, closer to the front. Or you can just hotwire the single wire to the compressor clutch. If you are low on freon, don't run it like this, just long enough to test it. Another indication of low freon are bubbles in the dryer sight glass located near the hood latch.

If the ECU doesn't bump the idle then it's probably the thermostat on the inside of the car. If you pull out the glovebox you should see a pair of (green I think) wires running to the A/C evaporator box. You can check if the thermostat is stuck by shorting them together.

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