AC question
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2nd Gear
Joined: Sep 2010
Posts: 2
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AC question
The air conditioner in my 2001 C5 doesn't blow cold air at times. If I turn the AC off and turn it back on, nothing changes but if I turn the car off and restart the engine, the AC blows cold air. Any thoughts?
Melting Slicks
Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 2,817
Likes: 21
From: Somerset, NJ
I have had plenty of experience with Automotive A/C systems on my vehicles over the years. Seems kind of strange that it doesn't blow cold air at times but when you turn it off and restart the car you say it blows cold air. First thing I would recommend you do is go to a parts store and get yourself a A/C Dial Thermometer to set inside of a center duct so you can read how cold your A/C system is. The next step if I were checking the system out I would hook up a set of R-134a A/C gauges up to the system to see what my low and high side of the system is reading. You could be low on R134a freon as most A/C systems develope a leak over time. Could be a simple o-ring failure in one of the lines. Another thing that could happen that I have seen more then a few times over the years is where a component in the system goes bad and the A/C system lines will freeze up. If you have that problem shutting the car down for say 5 or 10 minutes would melt down the freezeup in the system and when you start it again it will work fine until the trouble fines itself again. These are just some suggestions. No one can tell you exactly what is going on in this thread about your cars A/C system unless they have the car right in front of them. We can only give you some ideas on what to check for.
Last edited by ffas23; Sep 11, 2010 at 04:55 AM.
Race Director
Joined: Aug 2003
Posts: 13,421
Likes: 8
From: Lake Mary Florida
Mine has done this about three times, but it seems to occur only during extremely high humid nights. Such as I go over to the coast spend the day at family's and return home that evening, 80 mile drive to central fl where either it is raining, had been raining or just super humid, I can only get cool air and the windows flirt with fogging. I end up turning it way down like 65 to get colder air and it stays like this until I get home and shut down. I can go out a little later and restart and it is fine. Then nearly all the other times, it works fine and freezes you out unless you turn it up.
I've looked to see if lines are frozen but not. So I was going to have my freon checked. It may be right on the edge of being low and not. During day time driving, in say ambient 90's, setting it to 77 will freeze you out of the car. At lunch time I get in to go to lunch and its hot set it to 73 before I'm out of the parking lot I'm moving it to 75 and within a mile or so 76-77 because it is cold already.
Mine is a '01 as well. Convertible.
(funny smart google ads, the post is about AC system and the ad below is from a local Orlando AC expert.
)
I've looked to see if lines are frozen but not. So I was going to have my freon checked. It may be right on the edge of being low and not. During day time driving, in say ambient 90's, setting it to 77 will freeze you out of the car. At lunch time I get in to go to lunch and its hot set it to 73 before I'm out of the parking lot I'm moving it to 75 and within a mile or so 76-77 because it is cold already.
Mine is a '01 as well. Convertible.
(funny smart google ads, the post is about AC system and the ad below is from a local Orlando AC expert.
)
