How it all started, it was a very hot day. The AC was not running too cold. I decided to go to Auto Zone and buy a $49 AC/ PRO thingy.
Followed the instructions saw some videos. Went ahead and recharged it a bit. The gage said it was at 44 so I maxed it to 50. The gage kept going down to 45 even if I put more gas in it. It got to the point where the clutch wouldn’t start. I took the top of the freon tag off and let out some of the Freon from the pipes. The clutch kicked on and it was fine.
Went for a 2 hour drive and the clutch would not work. I think I took way too much Freon out and the clutch won’t start at all after I left the house…
I have tried
Check to see if the clutch won’t move. It moved fine when I use my hand
Tried to replace the fuse relay with the horn relay. That didn’t do the trick
Tried to hot wire the fuse relay 87 to the positive battery output. Nope…
Tried the paper click method from 30 to 87 on the fuse relay. Nothing
I disconnected the AC pipe switch and used the paper click. When I did that, the clutch won’t start but the radiator would kick on and off when I retrieved the paper clip. The clutch….nothing….
I haven’t swapped out the 75c fuse because I can’t get it out without a long noise pliers. That’s all I got left….
If anyone has any suggestions I would love some feedback. I believe that the Freon is very low but I can’t get the clutch to engage to fill it up again.
When the system is overcharged the low side can appear to be in the normal range but the high side can be so high that the high pressure cut-out switch will shut the system down.
Maybe the next step should be trying to bypass the high pressure switch? At this point I don’t know what to do. Is there such thing as a high pressure switch? I only found the low pressure one…maybe I need to look again.
You need to connect both low and high side gages, if the system is shut down because it is over charged there is 400 plus PSI in the system. After the system cools , the clutch may engage for a moment.
Without knowing how much refrigerant is in the system at this point, I would reclaim, vacuum and recharge based on capacity/refrigerant weight. Plus or minus 2 ounces can cause problems.
Your A/C may not have been low on refrigerant to begin with. It is possible that excessive buildup of dirt/dead insects in the condenser, inoperable second condenser fan, or a restriction in the system was the actual problem, and adding refrigerant will not solve these type of problems. A lot of people think that adding refrigerant is the solution to just about every A/C problem, and that is just not the case.
You next step should be taking the car to a proper shop who can actually diagnose and properly fix your problem. Don’t take this the wrong way, but you don’t seem to have the required knowledge or equipment to correctly fix the issue you’re having.
