Hello all - wondering if anyone has had this problem. 2007 with 189k on it started having problems with AC not cooling a few years ago. Had it recharged a few times and seems fine - except when it's been sitting outside in the sun. If it's in the garage and I leave - no problem with getting cold out of the vents. But if it's been outside the AC can't seem to get cold enough to "catch up" with how hot the car is. Any idea why a hot car would affect the AC's ability to blow cold air? I get that cooling off a hot car takes a bit longer, but in this case the air blowing out the vents never seems to get as cold as it does when it's been out of the sun. Also - when it is blowing cold, it seems slightly colder on the drivers side?

Thoughts? Appreciate the knowledge base on this forum!

 

Sounds like you have an undercharged system, meaning there is a leak.

 

Agree there's a leak somewhere but so far recharging it has worked ( mostly lol). I'm curious why it blows really cold air when the car has been out of the sun - but can't seem to get very cold when it's been in the sun.

 

Try running with recirculate on so that it's cooling progressively cooler air vs always trying to cool the hot outside air.

Overall there's probably a perception difference in play as well between the 2 scenarios. Dont forget if it sat in the sun you're sitting on and touching hot surfaces in addition to the hot air

 

For a while I had the rear controls set to 'heat' during the summer. That messed me up because the AC would never catch up, worth checking the rear controls if you have them...but it's probably a leak.

 

What have you used to recharge it? If it hasn't been pure refrigerant, i.e. refrigerant with no oil or other additives, then you could easily now have much oil in the system. With a slow leak, pretty much only refrigerant escapes, not oil. So if you recharge with what most people buy, which is refrigerant cans with oil in them, you end up with too much oil overall. And too much oil will degrade cooling performance.

Not saying that's your problem, but it's something to keep in mind. Obviously, you need to find and fix the leak, but you also may need to flush the system to remoce excess oil, and replace the drier, at least, but also possibly the condensor - if a slow leak is your only real problem.

 

Thanks all. I should mention that I'm not a DIY guy with this thing other than removable plastic body parts lol. I've had it recharged at the shop that does the maintenance on it for me - I guess I'll have them take a deeper dive into it before next summer. ( I'm in Minnesota so having sketchy AC from this point on in the year won't be a big deal. )

 

Ah, that clears up the situation. Yeah, a lot of diy-ers end up with too much oil trying to recharge systems themselves. But a shop probably wouldn't make that mistake.
Hopefully you guys will be having cooler weather from here on out.