Air conditioning woes

OK, now I think we've finally kicked winters butt out of here I'm realizing my A/C is running warm again or not running at all.

 

A little history- When I bough the car last June the A/C was totally not working, but the radiator fan still turned on when the A/C was turned on. I had my mechanic friend look at it and he found the condenser had two holes in it , so he replaced the condenser, evaporator, and replaced most the of the o-rings at the connection points and the A/C blew nice and cold for the rest of the summer.

 

I did notice that time using it around September that it didn't feel quite as cold.

 

Fast forward to the first warm days this year. I went to test it out and the air never got any colder when I tested it. Also, now the radiator fan DOES NOT come on when the A/C does (although the fan works fine when the car is sitting idling.

 

I had figured there is still a leak in the system, but what would be the reasons that the fan doesn't come on (excessively low refrigerant, compressor issue, some other part failed, etc...)?

If there isn't enough freon in the system the compressor will not kick in thus the fans will not as well. Put some more dye in the system and check with a UV light. If this was done before you'll have to clean the previous leak area so your for sure where the new leak is.

DO you have access to a set of manifold gauges?

I don't have any- most likely will have my mechanic check it out and maybe replace my noisy rear wheel bearing. It still must have a pretty big leak somewhere evewn after replacing the bad condenser.

Subarus tend to have good AC components that rarely have issues. On my old 96 L I had almost 200k and it still had the Org parts.

my 96 GT has all the original AC equipment as well, and has a small leak in it. when i bought the car the PO said it just quit working. replaced the schraeder valve and it was all good for the summer. now i have to do the small leak hunt on it this year, since it is all leaked out. sucks. my money is on an O ring.

When I purchased my 1997 Outback last year the A/C didn't blow cold despite adding refrigerant and the A/C compressor engaging when the A/C switch was pushed. The dealer had his A/C guy look into it and it turned out to be...low refrigerant. Not sure about the details as I wasn't there when he did the work. It sounded as if he ended up bleeding the system.

 

In your case it appears the refrigerant is low. As spooln30 said if there's insufficient refrigerant the system will not operate (by design to protect the system). Try adding some refrigerant and see if it starts to operate. Of course if it does you've got a leak to locate.

Hard to track down the leak sometimes unless you put some dye in the system. The compressor can wear out and leak also.

What is the environmental impact of the current generation of refrigerant? I know the R12 was bad for the environment but the R134a is supposed to be environmentally friendly. If it is it may just be less expensive to recharge it every year than spend the money to track down a leak.

I'm guessing a leak too, since it the cooling was marginal when I had last run the A/C in the heat about 6 months ago. I guess it leaked down enough over the winter to be low enough to keep the compressor for running.

 

I doubt this had any effect but when it was first worked on last July my mechanic didn't the blue cap back on over one of the in line access valves. I later located it and put it on, but my though is those just keep dirt and moisture form getting into the valve?

What is the environmental impact of the current generation of refrigerant? I know the R12 was bad for the environment but the R134a is supposed to be environmentally friendly. If it is it may just be less expensive to recharge it every year than spend the money to track down a leak.

 

you still have to properly recover it (if you are a shop), i wouldnt want to just evacuate the system to air in my driveway, but i doubt people would notice. ive had systems explode and express to air in our shop before, it definitely will cause a few coughs if you get stuck in the cloud.

 

 

that said, ill likely fill mine up with dye and refrigerant and let it got for a while, it stayed cold all last summer, so its a small leak.

I know that fresh freon will actually produce colder air with R134a. At the shop we won't use reclaimed freon on jobs because of this. The difference on some hvac systems might not be as noticeable as others but it made a decent difference on my 99 LGT. When I first the car, I checked the AC system out just to make sure it was performing properly and was only getting 69 degrees out of the center vents with the system on #4 blower speed and recirculated. I evacuated the old freon then added a little oil and fresh freon. After this it was blowing at 61 degrees. These temps were just idling in the shop on probably a 80 degree day so the temp does get colder when driving because of the air flow passing through the condenser. I'd say it has to be in the high 50s when driving.