Anyone having problems with not enough cold air from air-conditioner. I put in thermometer and it reads 50 degrees. Is that cold enough?

 

How much colder do you want it?

 

Are you saying 50 degrees is not cool enough?

 

I’d bet your system is working at 100% and if you took it to an A/C specialist he’d be rolling his eyes and thinking “what does this guy expect?” Don

 

I think a 20/30 degree drop from ambient temperature is good. Sounds like your system is working as designed.

 

Sounds like it's working just fine to me.

Remember it's an A/C not a walk in freezer...

 

The air coming out of the vent is dependent on outside temperature and humidity. Normally you will see 30-40 degrees drop. In high humidity, the drop will be at the lower.

 

It is considered in spec as long as it is 20 degrees or so below ambient temperature. If you want it colder, switch to recirculation. This has been pretty much the standard across all manufacturers since the switch to R134 took place. RC12 was colder, but oh well.

 

Exactly! Especially desirable in high humidity weather where you don't want an additional humidity load on the system AND the act of removing moisture reduces the amount of temperature drop that would normally occur across the evaporator. This time of year all of my vehicles stay on recirc most of the time. NOTE: some outside air is introduced by design in recirc, just a much smaller amount than normal, so you don't have to worry about suffocating on a long drive in recirc mode

Although it could be considered an inconvenience dumping some of the superheated air that builds up in a closed vehicle before engaging the A/C is also very worthwhile in getting faster cabin cooling.

 

Expansion valves are typically set for evaporator exit temperatures around 37F-41F. If you don't have exceptional (let's assume it's a typical Summer day of 88F with a 65F dew point) conditions entering the evaporator, the system should have sufficient capacity to produce exit air temperatures lower than 50F, again assuming that you have the blower on a medium (something less than "gale") setting. Round numbers to be sure, but a 50F exit temperature seems too high to me to provide proper cooling and dehumidification.

There could be a variety of causes for poor performance, including low charge, malfunctioning expansion valve, blocked heat exchangers, malfunctioning dampers in the interior air handler, malfunctioning heater core shutoff valve, or a compressor that's not working to capacity. etc. etc. The only way you will get to the bottom of the issue (given the previous assumptions, that is) is to have a competent AC tech look at it. "Competent" means doing more troubleshooting (we in the engineering biz call those "measurements") than sticking one's hand close to the dash vent and saying "Feels cool to me".

BTW, automotive AC systems can be very complicated and difficult to troubleshoot. I don't know what sort of compressor GM is using these days, but other manufacturers have switched to variable-displacement compressors that can make it a lot more challenging to run down performance problems. Unless there's a really *good* AC tech at your dealership, you'd probably be more successful taking your car to a standalone AC shop if any issues are identified in the refrigeration system.