Thread: A/C quit today

My car is still R12 and the a/c was working great up until today.I hardly ever even turn it past the lowest setting,and it would freeze you out....even on the hottet of FL summer days,it would not have to turn it past 2 for long.

So today I was on a road trip(its in the 90s today here) running the a/c and after about an hour of driving,it started to warm up.
At first,I thought it was just really hot out,but then,it kept getting warmer
While stopped at a redlight,I tried pushing the A/c button on and off to see if the compressor was still kicking on...nope

I stopped at a local mechanic to have it looked at,and his gauges showed it is fully charged.He said it was too hot around the compressor to work around there to check for power to the compressor.He recommende for me to bring it back and leave it for the day to check it all out.(he was pretty busy,and I was surprised he even had time to do what he did)

Anyway,I just got home and plan to follow the FSM procrdure to ty to diagnose it tomorrow when the engine is cooler.

If any of you guys have any suggestions,hints,or advice,I would love to hear it

I am spoiled by having all cars with a/c and its too damn hot here right now,so I need this fixed ASAP

Before this happened, if you were in stop and go traffic did the temps get warmer? Mine does, but once I get rolling it goes back in the cold cold. I wonder if the low pressure line has anything to do with this?

ON TOPIC: R12 is becoming harder and harder to charge bc it is not made on cars anymore. They switched over in 94. I did a full conversion on my 93 SE-R, to R134a.

Yeah,the local guy actually has some r12,but its full.
I was gonna convert it eventually,but it was working so good,I was happy

I remember your thread during your conversion,maybe I will go read it again..lol

the clutch on compressor might be bad. it is engaging but slipping thats why its hot? was it making any noises while the ac was on?

Good luck with this problem. I converted mine to R134 last summer. The problem with mine was the compressor which was making some noise and was taking a lot of time to cool. Once you change it to R134 is not going to be the same "IF" you can't find a honest and decent place to fix it right.

There are a lot of places where you have to take your car more than once for the same problem, $$$$$$$

It's easy to break off 1 of the 2 wires right at the compressor. Like as if someone is not carefull when changing out say...a belt. Take a quick look from underneath. Ask me how I know.

I dont think the clutch is even engaging.It has never made any strange noises.
I had a clutch go bad before on another car,and it just locked up and smoked the belt.This one seems fine.



My compressor was very quiet.
I have a halfway decent local mechanic here that I hope will get it fixed right the first time,but I definately know what you mean.
It seems like in FL if your a/c dies,you may as well just go ahead and bend over,if you take it to a shopThats why I am gonna try to at leat diagnose any electrical issues ahead of time



I havent changed the belts lately,but I plan to check it out in the A.M.

Thanks guys...keep the comments coming

There is a white 2 wire plug under the fan box. It is a plug for the A/C. I do not remember which one it is, but push it up. When my compressor went off, we found that connection was loose. I am still having A/C problems, but it is a leaking compressor.

I will try that,Thanks Ian
On another note,I noticed that when I put the fan speed a little past the 4 setting,the green light goes out on the button
All the speeds work,so I assume the resistor is working...but I wonder now if there is a problem with the AC slide controls....hmm

Here is what has happened to me, I know its frustrating not having A/C when it was working awesome before so ill share my experience.

My ac was doing the same thing you speak of. Blowing so so sooo cold it would freeze you to death. Seting 2 was the highest I ever used and my car is black.
I once took it on a trip to elpaso TX in the summer of 09 and it started acting funny.

Because of the humidity, You would actually get a fog coming out of the vents. It looked pretty cool. But it would get to a point where it would get so cold my gf would ALWAYS reach to turn the vents away from her. AS SOON AS SHE DID THIS, SEVERAL TIMES ( It was SO awkward!) The green light and the cold air with it would shut off and just blow outside air.

This happened several times. As soon as it got so cold to the point of freezing it would shut off.

Recently I got my ac fixed and recharged because I poked a hole in one of the lines on accident and all the juice leaked out. Pissed me off to no other!

I had a good talk with the ac guy that fixed my system and he was telling me that there is a switch that actually turns off the cold air when it gets to a certain temp. so the line does not freeze up. Soon as the temp comes back up in the system it will turn the cold air back on.

I dont know if this guy was feeding me BS but it sounded good and he seemed like a cool guy.

I ended up getting the line fixed and the system recharged for about $180. Which is well worth it IMHO.

Here is the thread i started on the old forum when i was going thru this.

A/C conversion, r-12 to r-134.... - SR20 Forum