AC problem need some help!
Thread Starter
Instructor
Joined: Aug 2007
Posts: 146
Likes: 0
From: Aliquippa Pa.
AC problem need some help!
I was driving my 2006 corvette cpe. yesterday the outside air temp was in the mid 80's, had the AC on and it kept warming up on me so I had both right and left temp settings turned down to 60 degrees, ac just quit working, then I noticed my outside temp reading was clear up to 120 degrees I was in traffic most of the time not going over 40, my car has only 4900 mi. on it. Last summer I had some work done and put a slp 160 stat in it, my engine temp went up to 220 degrees when all this was going on. At times the ac would start working again only when the outside air temp. reading would cool off. I was wondering if maybe I might have a bad outside ambient air temp sensor bad or somthing, has anyone had this problem? I would really appreciate the help.
Team Owner
Joined: Feb 2000
Posts: 53,498
Likes: 77
From: Arizona
I was driving my 2006 corvette cpe. yesterday the outside air temp was in the mid 80's, had the AC on and it kept warming up on me so I had both right and left temp settings turned down to 60 degrees, ac just quit working, then I noticed my outside temp reading was clear up to 120 degrees I was in traffic most of the time not going over 40, my car has only 4900 mi. on it. Last summer I had some work done and put a slp 160 stat in it, my engine temp went up to 220 degrees when all this was going on. At times the ac would start working again only when the outside air temp. reading would cool off. I was wondering if maybe I might have a bad outside ambient air temp sensor bad or somthing, has anyone had this problem? I would really appreciate the help.
Tech Contributor
Joined: Oct 1999
Posts: 41,031
Likes: 9,789
From: Charlotte, NC (formerly Endicott, NY)
That outside air temp reading should not have cut back on the AC. You might have a bad sensor but that isn't certain. If the car was sitting in the sun for a long time before you started it the sensor could have gotten that hot. With newer GM cars the sensor data isn't updated in the AC controller if the car is driven at slow speeds. To update the sensor data the car has to be driven over 50 mph for a short distance. Not sure why they did this but I found out about it earlier this year when I had a very low outside temp reading and my AC wouldn't work. I took it in to the shop and the service writer said take it out on the highway and see if the temp reading goes higher. Shortly after going over 50 the temp updated and the AC started working properly.
Bill
Bill
Intermediate
Joined: Mar 2006
Posts: 39
Likes: 2
From: Plano Texas
The first thing I would check would be my low and high side AC pressures, especially after the car is warmed up. I encountered the same issue you described after installing headers. Short story is the higher ambient temps under hood increased my AC pressures to the point where the high pressure switch would turn the compressor off due to excessive pressure. Seems the car came with a max load of freon (system holds relatively small volume of freon) and a little more heat ended up with too much pressure for the system. A couple of pfffts of freon out of the system and I've never had a problem since.
