I have had my Vette 3 months now and the A/C won't kick in. The orange light flashes a few times and then goes out. The outside temp is above 40f and sometimes 50f here.

The day I picked up the car the guy was fitting a brand new duel climate control display at a cost to him of £300($570) he said the old one had lost it's display.

I found then that I had no heater blower fan, until I replaced the c/c control module with a used one I got on Ebay.com.

When I set the temp to 60f it blows fairly cold but not ice cold! I have tried all different settings and the A/C light will flash a few times then go out.

I posted this on another forum and I was told if my refrigerant was low this would stop the compressor from working.

Is the right as if I put my car into the A/C shop they will put the car on vacuum and refill the refrigerant but they charge £80 ($150) for this.

I have checked the fuses and swapped over the relay with another one in the fuse box.

Anyone else had the same thing?

 

TTT anyone! your not telling me one's had there a/c refilled.

Does the compressor stop working before it needs refilling.

Is there no tech advice on this forum!

 

Get the freon checked first, (we do it free here) and also go into diagnostics and (hold options and hit fuel 4 times) clear the codes in HVAC. At least you should have cold air.

 

I beleive when the AC light blinks it means the refrigerant is low. Is it throwing any codes? You might get a better response if you post this in Tech.

 

Hi thanks for the replies. I don't have any HVAC codes. The hand book says the light flashes when the A/C is not available which isn't very helpful. Looks like I need to get it refilled.

I posted in here because I thought having A/C refilled is not that technical.

I can't get the cans of refrigerant in the UK so it looks like a trip to the A/c shop!

 

I looked on Ebay.co.uk and found a few kits for refiiling the A/C but they were almost as expensive as having it filled by the A/C shop. kit was £65 ($123) and a proffessional regas was £70.50 ($134)

So I took it along and they put there machine on and checked the pressure sucked out any oxygen and moisture with the vacuum pump and then refilled with R134.

It works a treat the compressor kicks in when it's needed and it blows ice cold.

Thanks to all that tried to help.

Cheers Andy

 

Glad you got it working. You might also want to identify where the leak was.

Ed

 

That is the difference between do it yourself kits and a proffesional shop. I'm no A/C engineer but there machine goes through a set cycle to refill your system a dye is put in and a light is used to show up any leaks.

There machine monitors the high side pressure and low side pressure and prevents over filling of the system, which can cause A/C line to burst etc. A vacuum pump is used to extract oxygen and moisture from the system which are also harmful to your A/C if left in there.

Some people don't have there A/C checked or refilled until it eventually runs of gas. I had the same with the Z28. 7 year old car A/C went warm on that one and the compressor continued to work, but when they refillied it they said it had probably never been refilled since the car was new. Again they had to leaglly do a leak test on the car before they filled it.

That's about the best I can explain it, as I a long chat with the guys about these DIY kits that are now available in the UK. They were not very impressed that you can buy these without having any training in how to refill A/C. Maybe it's job protection but with only a £10 ($18) difference in the price of DIY and getting it done by the Pros's there is no contest in which to choose.

If your system is really low your need the vacuum pump to help it refill as the compressor won't stay on long enough to suck any gas in. I got that from another MB where a guy tried a DIY kit with no success.

 

Andy,

I think you did right having the techs fix it. Haven't had any problem with the vette but we had all sorts of problems with my son's Camaro in Vegas. Vegas is not a place to be without AC

We ended up with a quite few components being replaced before we fixed it. The dye will show up the leak if that's a problem.

I'd advise always running the AC even when its cool outside. The seals can dry out if its not used.

BTW, the maual says that at temperatures below 35 to 40 degrees, the AC will not run. When you try you'll get a flashing light on the HVAC panel. Thats normal. With temps here recently I've been operating at about that cut off.

 

Thanks DeeGee, I new about the cut off tempreture from a post you did a while ago. So I waited until it was above that before I tried it. On some of the sunny days we had a few weeks ago it was hitting 50f.

So I new something else was wrong. I was just thrown by the compressor not kicking in when the gas was low. On my last car 99 Z28 it would still kick in but it gradually got warmer.until I knew it was no longer cooling the interior. I thought I might have a broken compressor on the Vette thankfully it was just a regas!

Cheers Andy

 

Well it turns out the compressor was leaking and needs to be replaced.

I got a new one on ebay for $255 plus the orifice tube and accumulator drier.

My A/C shop is an electricl shop and could not fit the compressor as they thought the front engine cover needed to come off!

My brother is a car mechanic and I do most of my own work on my cars.

Has anyone fitted an A/C compressor to a C5 how hard is it does anything else need to be removed to get the compressor out. It does look tight in there!

 

You need to remove the water pump to do it...
alternately the exhaust manifold or the radiator...
But I'm told the simplest is the water pump.
I think if you search you will find a few DIY instructions.

 

here's the thread I was thinking about...

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/show...2FC+compressor

 

Thanks excellent info, just what I need.

I tried searching but unless you type exactly the right words nothing comes up.

 

I finally got around to changing the A/C compressor, I took the airbridge off then jacked the car up and put the front on axle stands.

Drained the water into a clean bowl for reuse as it's distilled water and antifreeze. I then removed the large serpentine belt and removed 4 hoses and then the water pump. Then the A/C belt

I then took the bolt and nut from the top of the compressor the took the passenger wheel off to access the bottom two bolts. Took those off.

Then got the stud out of the to left hole then undid the manifold on the back.

I drained the oil out of the old compressor and put it in the new one. So I didn't burn out my new compressor!

I took the two washers of the back out the compressor and put them back on the manIfold.

Then it's just a case of putting it all back together.

Then down to my A/C shop who did me a regas cheaper because it all leaked out last time.

I did make one mistake as when we tried the A/C the belt would not drive the pulley. I had routed the A/C belt wrongly I went on top of the idler wheel instead of underneath. Once I rerouted the belt correctly evrything was fine ice cold A/C just ready for the winter!

I had a new accumulator drier and a new orifice tube sent from the USA with the new compressor but they were both the wrong parts! The drier was to tall to fit into the gap behind the battery and the orifice tube was too big at one end to go in the line. Anyway I removed the orifice tube and cleaned it with a small brush. There was very little debris on it. I oiled the o rings before puting them back together.

Job done I used new gaskets on the waterpump also. I did a search on here first for A/C compressor replacement it turned out to be very useful. Without it I would not have checked for oil in the new compressor and that would have been a disaster!

It wasn't quite as hard a job as I was expecting good job we had a crap summer and I didn't need the A/C much!

Roll on next Summer I'm ready now! Now everything on the Vette works!

 

Another DIY success story
Leak in compressor is a common problem in GM veh. Many people fill it up and think the problem is solved but not true on AC system, leaks don't just go away.

 

Here in the states you can get a case of R134 (12 cans of 14 oz) for about $40 or $50 at a large discount store like Sams. A can tapper costs about $5 and a set of A/C guages and hoses for R134 are abt $39 at Harbor Freight (a cheapo tool place).
I recharged my system, Replaced the expansion orfice and both schrader valves and added freon (2 cans does it) and a little refrigerant oil for about $30 US. Things are different everywhere. But I bet tea and crumpets are a lot easier to get over there. BIGHANK

 

You can get the R134 refill cans over here now but buy the time you paid for them it's cheaper to get the shop do it.

1 can is £38 ($73) I would have needed more than one as the system was empty. The regas was only £50 ($95) and when they refil first they vacuum the system to get all the crap out of it then they add a dye to check for leaks aswell as refill.

I don't doubt that you guys know what your doing filling your own A/C but over here A/C is a relatively new extra on family cars because our climate doesn't really make it essential (although I would not be without it) The shop told me they get people in who overfilled there A/C and it went pop!

Your right the refills are not easy to get and much more expensive!

Anyway I celebrated a good done with 5 large cans of cold
beer