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Air conditioner problem

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Old Sep 22, 2008 | 03:39 PM
  #1  
Ringerdinger's Avatar
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From: Morristown Tennessee
Default Air conditioner problem

Fixed the vacum lines and everything was working as it was supposed to.
Replaced the battery last week.

Today, when you turn on the AC hot air comes out of the driver side and cold out of the passenger side.
I turned up the temp. on the driver side and it got hot. Turned it down and it quit getting hot but didn't get cold.
All this time the passenger side is blowing cold. Turned the temperature up on the passenger side and it kept blowing cold.

Where do I start?
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Old Sep 22, 2008 | 04:02 PM
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From: Leeds Alabama
Default

This fixed mine..

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/show....php?t=2138849
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Old Sep 22, 2008 | 04:14 PM
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Default

The post above says, "I was getting cold air on the drivers side and hot air on the passenger side."

Which is clearly not the same as your problem. Its the opposite.

Your car is low on refrigerant. The 2 evaporators are stacked one above the other. The drivers side is stacked above the pass side. When low on charge the upper or drivers side supplying coil gets starved, causing warmer air to come out of the drivers side...

Find the leak that caused the low referigerant charge condition and repair it, then re-charge the system.
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Old Sep 22, 2008 | 04:54 PM
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Default fixed

Thanks for the replies.
I checked the codes. None unresolved and none at all in HVAC. I went ahead and reset everything, even the ones not showing anything. I also did HVAC by itself 3 times as per the post.

It now works.

Thanks tr911 for the link to that post. I had done a search but I guess I missed that one.


DRR, you are right and that is good information to know. I wondered how they had the 2 sides zoned. I will get the refrigerant checked just to be sure.

Thanks loads. I love this forum.
In a months time I have bought a car and trailer off the forum. Good transactions both times and have found everything I needed here so far except I am still looking for some lt. oak seat covers,lol. They will turn up sooner or later.

Thanks again.......Ringerdinger

Last edited by Ringerdinger; Sep 22, 2008 at 04:56 PM. Reason: grammar
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Old Sep 24, 2008 | 09:39 AM
  #5  
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PS...Is it still working correctly?

Quote:
"All this time the passenger side is blowing cold. Turned the temperature up on the passenger side and it kept blowing cold."

The pass side temp set point is slaved to the drivers side set point + or - 10 deg.
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Old Sep 24, 2008 | 10:50 AM
  #6  
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Ringerdinger
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Everything is still working correctly.

I have an appointment to get the refrigerant checked.

Thanks again.
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Old Sep 24, 2008 | 12:12 PM
  #7  
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Doug9C1
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From: San Antonio TX
Default Low on Refrigerant

I have had the hot air on the driver's side condition on two different C5s. Added refrigerant and both worked fine.

Good Luck
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Old Sep 24, 2008 | 11:56 PM
  #8  
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bestvettever
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From: Bucks County Pa
Default No two evaporators

Originally Posted by DRR
The post above says, "I was getting cold air on the drivers side and hot air on the passenger side."

Which is clearly not the same as your problem. Its the opposite.

Your car is low on refrigerant. The 2 evaporators are stacked one above the other. The drivers side is stacked above the pass side. When low on charge the upper or drivers side supplying coil gets starved, causing warmer air to come out of the drivers side...

Find the leak that caused the low referigerant charge condition and repair it, then re-charge the system.
Hi, there is one evaporator in the vette system. It is a dual row finned unit. When you have a situation that the drivers side is warmer than the pass side, it may be caused by bad actuators, bad control head or low refrigerant charge. When the cause is low ref charge it is because the entire length of the evaporator is not getting the full spray of refrigerant internally due to low pressure, and the side that is being starved is the driver side which is controlled by the actuator door on the auto temp control model. So in that case even if the actuator doors are functioning as designed the driver side door is positioned to allow full refrigerated air, but that side of the evaporator core is not as cold as the other side.
I'm not picking on the poster, just don't want anyone laboring under a misconception. If you take the evaporator out of the car you will see it is one unit with 2 rows of coils.

quote-DRR, you are right and that is good information to know. I wondered how they had the 2 sides zoned. I will get the refrigerant checked just to be sure.quote

The way the temp is zoned is by way of doors called actuators. The ductwork is chambered into two distinct seperate pathways leading to the vents on the pass and driver side. the pathway starts at the plenum chamber where the heater core and the refrigeration evaporator core reside. You set the temp on the driver side, the door that leads to that side takes a position allowing the right amount of cooled air mixed with heated air to satisfy the temp called for. The pass side dial is a modulation controller to allow the pass side to be controled seperatly within parameters dependant on the driver side setting using a separate door leading to the distinct chamber for the pass side vents.The temps are a combination of heated air then cooled by the evaporator to the proper temp and distributed to the location specified. The heater core is always hot, and the evaporator will be very cold if the ac is on. If the ref level is low the evaporator core will not be sufficiently cold enough across it's entire length to handle both doors, the driver side being on the side of it that gets the ref last. That is basically how the system is able to have different temps on each side within design parameters. When the drivers side is set to either 60, or 90 the pass side will have no input to the temps and they should be the same on both sides.



Luck To ALL

Last edited by bestvettever; Sep 25, 2008 at 12:26 AM.
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Old Oct 2, 2008 | 08:38 PM
  #9  
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i got a/c problems i have hot air on both sides no matter what the temp is set on I NEED HELP PLEASE. MY FIRST C5 .
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