i went to jiffy lube and had the ac on my 97 ford explorer charged but it still wasnt blowing cold air,i believe the motor/or ac compressor works because when i turn on the ac it blows hot air only. the guy at jiffy lube said it wasnt a leak because the machine would have caught it and stopped. any ideas? how do i test the ac compressor?
go to autozone. they should have a dye kit that you run through it. its what we've used at check engine. if there is a leak you should be able to see it through the glasses it gives you.
First look at the a/c compressor with engine off. You will see a the drive belt going on pulley, and just inside that you will see a clutch. This clutch is energized from 12 volts and allows the drive belt to drive the a/c compressor. When a/c is off this is not engaged and the pulley is just acting like an idler pulley. Start vehicle and turn on a/c. And go look at that clutch again and see if it is engaged, or not engaged. If engaged but blowing warm air, the freon charge is more than likely a little low. If not engaged, find your a/c compressor fuse in the fuse box and make sure its not blown. There may be multiple fuses controlling this curcuit so verify with your haynes manual to be sure. If fuses look good, next its time to look at the high and low pressure switches. These switches are like safety switches that can disable the compressor. Check these both by running a continuty test on the switches to verify continuity. FYI here you may find that the low pressure switch doesn't have continuity. This will more than likely be because the system is low on refrigerant. BUT at this time I would verify compressor operations by jumping the low pressure switch and restarting the vehicle. This should make the compressor clutch engage as discussed earlier. If that seems to work, 95% OF THE TIME THIS SYSTEM IS LOW ON REFRIGERANT DUE TO A LEAK OR IMPROPER CHARGE BY TECHNICIAN. At this point the system needs to be checked for leaks. JUmping this switch is only for test purposes, do not run like this! you WILL damage the compressor. Ok, I'm tired of typing LOL I could keep going on repairs and such but I will hope at this point it gets you on the the right track and can ask a more direct question, or you feel you need to take it to a compitant shop with a technician able to problem solve it. and in most cases.............. A JIFFY LUBE IS NOT GOING TO HAVE THE RIGHT TECHNICIAN. Not all the time but most. Any more questions, feel free to ask but to go further your going to need some specialized tools to continue. Hope this helps Adam.
