My car has very low flow out of the vents. There is a little stronger air flow with it just on defrost.

My car has the C68 electronic climate control. I tested it in diagnostic mode and it had no error codes stored.

I tested the blower speed and the blower runs fine at low, med, and high speeds.

The A/C works, really everything seems to work but there is little airflow.

I took the blower motor out today, the squirrel cage is clean and OK. Looking into the motor housing there is a door in the back. This door does not open under any climate control setting. Should it?

The evap core is covered with tar. Is there any way to clean this without discharging the A/C? And how'd it get like that? It's totally black and clogged, is it all dirt from intake air at the base of the windshield? Can a filter be put there if so?

Any tips would help, thank you.

 

Although I can't help you with your specifics, there's a great site specific to automotive AC where someone most likely can:

www.autoacforum.com

Good luck!

 

This wont help too much but there was a topic a long while back.Some people were talking about how the evaporator core gets clogged and they cleaned it all out,even took pics and etc.I cant find it so not sure where it ended up.

I do know you can clean the core without taking it out of the car and losing freon,but unsure how bad yours is.It does sound like you got alot of blockage in there as you described and that will affect the flow of cool air into the cabin.

 

..........just a thought but, ya think that you can get a commercial grade coil cleaner or maybe simple green or if desperate enough, an oven cleaning product (**ck directions to see what effects that will have on evaporator coil) and drench the evaporator a few times and "rinse"?...i wonder if the "gunk" on the evaporator is due to a refrigerant leak as refrigerants contain oil.......only if you have to remove the evaporator will you have to remove the refrigerant.

..as far as the "door", it should move with the temp settings on the climate control unit...if you reach in through the heater box from the engine compartment with heater blower module removed, can you take a paint stirring stick and move the blend door (DO NOT FORCE!). if you can, chances are that the door clip(s) may be stripped (like mine was) of broken......if that is the case you'll need to replace the broken clip(s). however, they, to my understanding, discontinued. i found one from a local auto parts store that can be easily retro-fitted to work.....

 

It is fairly typical that over time the evaporator gets dirt build-up. Claeaning it with a degreaser, then by simple green will do the trick. As far as a filter goes, Ecklers did sell one several years back.

Now getting to the door. It should be moving when you change functions. heat to a/c, a/c to heat. You had mentioned that you cannot move the door which means the actuator rod and kinkage are in tact, leaving several possibilities; the programmer, or the actuator. Is unusual that you are not puling any codes.

First check the programmer (near the brake pedal on the firewall) and make sure the vacuum connections are ok. Then check the electrical connections (remove the contacts and clean them with contact cleaner). If that does not work drop the spass side cover and check the actuator, to ensure the linkage is connected, then check the and clean the electrical connections. Disconnect the battery for one minute, reeconnect it, go through different settings. and pulll the codes from the heat-a/c controls. It would be helpful if you also gave the year and milage in the posts. A real longshot is that not enough air is going through the unit past the temp control module - where just a cleaning will solve the problem. Hope this helps.

 

What is a good degreaser that is safe to use there? I will run and get some Simple Green this afternoon.

I did post my year, in my sig at the bottom of my post. Do you have signatures turned off? I will just add it to the post in the future. I have an '88 coupe. I had to use the 'vert climate control keys to access the diagnostic mode. I thought that was odd. The normal keys did nothing. I'm glad I have the FSM!

Thanks for the help, I will keep checking. The A/C blows cold and the lines in the engine compartment are different temps. The doors in the cabin seem to work fine and blow at defrost, bi-level, etc. It seems to be the plugged evap that I need to fix.

Edit, the outside air valve door does work. The FSM shows that it only opens in auto 60° with engine vaccum. So I just need to clean the evap. Is it tough to take it more apart? Right now I am looking at it through the blower motor opening.

 

 

Why does the outside air door only open in auto 60°?

Finished!



I used a spray degreaser and a toothbrush plus a rag to clean it through the blower motor opening. It cleaned up pretty good and did not take long at all. It only takes a few mins to get the blower motor out. The air flow is MUCH increased!!!

 

With hind sight, cutting the handle off a bristle brush would do well to clean the top part of the evap core. You can see in the picture that the top part did not get as clean.

 

actually, it closes to give you recirculating air.
If you had a regular car with the "max" A/C feature, the blower goes on a little faster, the recirc door opens, the compressor is not cycling, and the temp control does not regulate at a certain temp. The system is on high high.
That is what you get at the 60* setting.
And you may have solved my problem with my A/C, as I have the same problem as you do.!!!!......did.........whatever

 

Great! There were a few quick tests to do then it looked like a plugged up evap core. I checked the fuse, scaling motor speed, all the vents work and change, the air blows both cool and hot, but little flow. That is fixed now!

 

Every Evaporator I've seen that looks like that is because it's leaking. If you're adding gas, that's where it's been going. Not real great to breathe the stuff - though I can't say I haven't had a few whiffs!

 

No I have not added any gas. The car had low air flow when I bought it almost four years ago. The A/C blows cold still. If it were leaking wouldn't there be oil concentrated around where it leaks? Does it leak at the fittings? I doubt I've had a few whiffs either, if it was leaking it would have leaked out by now.

 

Pinhole leaks seep very little - the only way to know is to check pressures and have someone stick an electronic leak detector in the vents or next to the evaporator with the Resistor Pod or Blower Module removed. That filter is glued to the core at the Factory so when you yank it off, you have to deal with that. However, the rest of it usually comes off; ie, they're not completely plugged up with the foam unless they're leaking. To me, better to get it pressure and leak tested before you yank it apart - a lot of shops will do it for free or a minimal amount.

 

Sounds good, thank you.

 

I would like to check my evaporator and do a cleaning as well, given how dirty things get after 17 years I'll bet it isn't too pretty.

How do you access it?
What are things to look out for in doing this job?

 

.....see post # 8

 

I only needed to remove some of the wheel well cover bolts to clearance the fan motor removal. You just remove the blower motor. It's the round motor by the heater core lines right above the washer fluid bottle. Then you can see the bottom of the evap core. I used a digital camera to take pix and check how the cleaning was working. The only other thing I did was repaint the metal cowl cover while I was there. On mine there is a metal cover in place of the plastic screen at the base of the wind shield only on the passenger side. You don't have to remove it, I just did because the paint was bad.

Just make sure the evap drain works when your done. I also checked that the wind shield drains worked as well.

 

Great, I was wondering if the access was from inside or from the engine bay, this helps me out. I'll look at this as my next AC project, in an overall AC tune-up.

 

Let me know if you find a fast and easy way to staighten bent areas out on the condensor, mine has a few bad spots and it is very tedious to fix.