Air conditioning stuff

Maintenance/Repairs
1 
2010 Ford E350 5.4 15 passenger van. Over 200,000 miles. Extremely well maintained.

I know I’ve said I don’t mess with A.C. unless it’s last resort and am willing to sacrifice it because I do not have the proper equipment. The A.C. stopped working on this so for giggles I added refrigerant. The cheap gage that came with the can said I started at under 30# on low side. I added refrigerant and the pump started to cycle on and off. When pump engaged pressure Rose and when it cut off it dropped. It’s about 90 degrees here, so I wanted to get it to about 45*. When it got to 45* the compressor stayed engaged continually. There is no cold air. I think it’s time to quit now. But my question is: I do not believe I have hurt anything more as of yet. But is it possible that this thing is overcharged. If so I can unplug the pump and wait for proper repairs. Or can I run it for awhile and see if anything unplugs.

2

Without a high side pressure reading only a SWAG is possible and my best guess would be the system is either overcharged or the condenser is not getting enough air flow to cool it.

3

Thank you. Seeing that there is a possibility of it being overcharged, I will disable it until it can be properly repaired.

4

Have you checked the accumulator under the hood to see if it feels cold and is sweating?

If it is then maybe there’s a blend door problem in the dash. That’s not unheard of since the operating mechanism is plastic and can strip out.

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5

Excellent point.

Similarly, you can test air temp blowing into the van w/o the AC running. Years ago, a friend was cursing his AC. I loaned him my temp meter to test air temp. He found air blowing in (AC off) was hotter than outdoors. I don’t recall the exact culprit, but he found the heater was on during summer, despite the slider position being set to cold…Any way, once he got rid of that extra 15 or 20 degrees, the AC was working fine.

Also, I thought you wanted 40 pounds (low side) with the pump running, or have things changed? I don’t think any damage has been done. Be sure to let the mech know you charged the system.

6

I think someone figured out some years ago that a big problem with Ford blend door actuators is that there isn’t enough movement in it to cover the bases on the low and high end of the temperature spectrum. The EATC units can be set from 60 to 90 degrees.

As the blend door approaches that 60 or 90 figure the actuator runs out of adjustment basically and starts straining the plastic gears. Eventually the plastic gives up.

So for years on all of my Fords I’ve always set the EATC unit a few degrees from the ends of the scale. In other words,62 or 88 degrees. Even with age and very high miles I’ve never had a blend door given up.

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7

I don’t think it’s blend doors because the compressor previously wasn’t engaging. There is a change of temp when I turned them. This is not auto temp control. Uses a turn knob. I will not rule it out yet though until I get a chance to look at it more fully. After I get the shocks changed, I’ll move on to A.C.