I have a 2002 Ford Taurus which I bought in the Winter and didn’t check the air conditioner. It only blows hot air on any setting, some settings blow more hot air than others. My shop said it’s one of two things, one costs $50 and the other costs $750 but I will have to pay $350 to remove the dash to find out. Here’s the weird part, last summer the coolant was a little low and I was stuck in a drive thru line. I watched the temperature go up until, lo and behold, the air conditioner kicked in and blew frigid air! It came on and worked twice more that day. I filled up the coolant and it hasn’t worked since. Anybody have any ideas?
They should not have to go on an expensive fishing expedition by removing the dash to get an idea of what’s going on.
Based on the fan comment, you need to make sure the radiator fan cycles on when you turn the A/C on. Offhand, a wild guess might say there’s a fault in the circuitry that flips the fan on with the A/C and when it cycled on at the fast food place that was due to engine temperature.
Off the top of my head, I do not know how this model of Taurus is wired up and know for a fact that I don’t have a schematic for it.
Will see if I can pull up a diagram this evening and in the interim you might consider checking each and every fuse; both the interior fuse box and the underhood one. It could be nothing more serious than blown fuse as these systems generally rely on more than one.
A look at a diagram shows the fan circuitry is kind of involved so I hate attempt to sort it out here. It also shows 2 fans so this means both should run when the A/C is engaged.
It does show 3 fuses being involved and they are all in the underhood box. First off, I would make sure every fuse in that box is good; not just those 3.
I will definitely check all of the fuses. But why would it start blowing cold when the temperature is going up?
You might just be low on the refrigerant charge.
As the ambient temperature rises the system pressure rises. So if you’re at the hairy edge where the low pressure switch works when it’s hotter closing the contacts the AC works. But when the temperature cools down and the system pressure drops this prevents the low pressure switch from closing.
Did you know that when you recharge an AC system, that you have to make corrections for the ambient temperature? This is because the hotter it is out the gauge readings will be higher because of the higher pressures. And the cooler it is, the gauge readings will be lower because of the lower pressures.
Tester
True enough, and this kind of shows a bit of complexity in the cooling fan system alone. The A/C itself is not even in this link.
If the compressor clutch is engaged and the compressor turning then both fans should and must be running. I would have hoped the shop would have thrown the gauges on it at the start, but…