2013 Hyundai Santa Fe Sport - Intermittent issues with AC

Maintenance/Repairs
,
1

cooling system function fades out after 20 minutes with lower and lower blowing, then if left for 5 minutes,returns to full blowing. ? freezing up coil ? expansion valve ? freon level is OK… temperature controller malfunction… ports for air closing? which?

2

That indicates a problem with either your blower (fan) motor or blower resistor.

3

Thank you for the suggestion concerning my 2013 Sante Fe AC problem.

I was thinking though, that the fan motor was ok as it sounds to be working and trying very hard to push air through to the compartment.

The strong airflow only works for about 15 minutes and the airflow diminishes in that time to basically 0. The fan motor can be heard struggling away, hence I did not suspect any fan problem. Simply turning off the air and AC completely for about 3 minutes, clears the problem again and the AC is working fine again.

I was thinking rather, that the expansion coil could be freezing up for some reason. Perhaps the expansion valve is not letting the AC fluid move and the coils are freezing.

A second prefered thought was that the temperature controller software or sensors are acting up and closing all the vent ports?

Still aftraid to take it to a dealer, only for him to do all the checks, charge a lot, and then come back to a simple solution.

And more suggestions?

Paul

4

It’s out of warranty, you can take it to an independent automotive AC shop.
Check with friends and check yelp for recommendations.

1 Like
5

Your symptoms do sound like the evaporator coil is freezing up. You don’t need the dealer for this. Take it to an automotive a/c shop. They have the instruments to diagnose and repair this.

1 Like
6

to check purebred’s idea- run the blower on your normal setting but on heat- if the a/c compressor still kicks on, pull the relay. If blower speed still slows down, it is a blower motor or resistor.

1 Like
7

Sounds like evaporator icing to me. When air output drops to nothing look underneath the passenger front floor and see if there is any condensation dripping out of the evap drain tube. If not, its’frozen up and is likely caused by the refrigerant level being a bit low.

You say the freon (misnomer) is ok but what are the system pressures?

1 Like