I have a teacher friend who has a 2012 Forester Premium 4AT 2.5 L. His problem is that he has not cool air blowing only hot air and it is blowing from the side vents and only form the defrost and not the center vents. The A/C is set to Max air, recirculation on. I put a set of gauges on it and both the high and low side were low. I did some research on it and the information shows that maybe the expansion valve is stuck closed. Does this system present codes if there is an A/C issue? I tried to find out if the blend doors are vacuum operated or if they are electrically operated but have not found the answer yet. I would appreciate any help. Thanks.
On the manual AC version, the intake door actuator appears to be some sort of electrical motor or servo, if that is of any help. On the automatic AC version, the mix door and the mode door are also electrical. Make sure the radiator fans are spinning when the AC is on. Those have to be working and removing the heat from the AC condenser (near the radiator), otherwise the AC won’t work.
That problem points to the expansion valve.
But the expansion valve isn’t stuck closed. If that were the case, the high side pressure would go thru the roof while the low side pressure would sink.
The expansion valve is stuck open. And is no longer regulating the pressure differential between the low/high sides.
Tester