Hi Im new and confused! I have a 97 ford taurus and its hot today! My air conditioner was working fine uniil recently it still blows full force but not cold at all, I took it to Jiffy Lube and they wanted almost two hundred dollars, can it be that expensive? can anyone tell me what this could be and also about how much it could cost? Thank you I appreciate it!
Jiffy lube was your first mistake. They are not where you should take your car to have the A/C serviced.
Take your car to someone that has experience or specializes in repairing A/C. They will install a set of gauges to determine if the system is low on charge. This is the first and most basic step in diagnosing what the problem is.
Acutally Im not sure, you see I tried not to use it unless it was really hot (to save gas) So I think it happend suddenly because on week I turned it on and it work great maybe 2 weeks later I tried it again and it was hot, I’ll take that into consideration, thank you for your comment
Have you checked under the hood with the engine and A/C running? Is the A/C compressor clutch engaging for short intervals, 5 - 15 seconds at a time? My 2000 Blazer did this in 2003, it turned out to be a bad low pressure switch. The switch was replaced under warranty and the A/C has been working since. I noticed the A/C was not working on my 1993 Caprice a few weeks ago, a can of freon (R12) fixed that.
Neither of these repairs were expensive. You should take your car to a shop that specializes in A/C repair or even a dealer for a second opinion rather than a Jiffy lube.
Good luck,
Ed B.
Jiffy lube was your first mistake. They are not where you should take your car to have the A/C serviced.
Take your car to someone that has experience or specializes in repairing A/C. They will install a set of gauges to determine if the system is low on charge. This is the first and most basic step in diagnosing what the problem is.
There is not enough info provided to make much of a guess.
It needs to be determined if the compressor is engaging or not.
If it is not engaging then the problem is going to be (more than likely) either a low system charge, faulty pressure switch, blown fuse, faulty ICM module, etc.
In a nutshell, it’s going to be loss of refrigerant through a leak or an electrical fault.
Connecting some A/C gauges could tell a lot. If the static system pressure is well below 100 PSI then there is a probably a leak somewhere; probably a compressor shaft seal considering the car is 11 years old.
How about making sure the fluid (freon or whatever the new stuff is now) for the ac system is full/charged? Try PetBoys to refill the system for cheap or maybe one of your neighbor’s is a car buff? Good Luck!
you probably have a free-on leak