Dear Car talk - AC in my car fails intermittently. Once in a while it stops blowing cold air. sometimes if I turn off the AC and restart it will start working but most of time it does not work. However it starts working normally next day
My mechanic failed to reproduce the problem. what part may be failing?
“Parts” not part. It could be a number of things.
If your mechanic failed to reproduce the problem, I’d suggest taking notes about when the AC is an issue, what happens, how long the car has been running before it happens, what you were doing when it happens, ect. Explain that in detail to your mechanic. If that doesn’t turn a light on in his head, take it to an AC specialty shop and repeat.
Hi,
I had the same issue and a mechanic asked me to diagnose it with a number of steps like re-feeling the gas so that he can ensure there is proper pressure and then he will move to electronic parts before moving to the compressor.
However, since It was intermittent and there was cooling also, I decided to give it a try and directly check the relay, pull it off, check for any carbon deposit and you can replace it momentarily to verify if relay has a problem. And, yes, that was it.
I cleaned my AC relay (you can identify with the car manual) and it’s okay now.
Mostly, these components are pretty reliable if dont kept out of use for prlonged time. So, keep it working frequently to avoid any leak.
Hope this will help.
Cheers
The problem is most likely with the expansion valve to the evaporator
The expansion valve controls the amount of refrigerant that enters the evaporator. Sometimes the expansion valve sticks where the improper amount of refrigerant enters the evaporator, and there’s no cooling effect.
Tester.
My 2007 Accord SE was doing this when I was low on freon. It was weird. Sometimes I had air, sometimes not. I recharged it with a dye and it worked again. I found my compressor was leaking and replaced it. Not all leaks are the same, but a recharge was helpful.