I have a 2000 I30. Today I turned on the A/C (Auto button), I brought the temperature control down to 68 degrees, I could hear the compressor go on, the fan worked fine, but all I could get was hot air. The air stayed hot for at least 15 minutes, so I finally turned the A/C off.

My guess is there is a Freon problem and assume there is a leak. Before I bring the car into the mechanic, is there anything I can do?

Thanks.

Anovice

 

Buy two cans of 134a, a set of cheap gauges (or at least the filler line with gauge) and charge it yourself.

 

Above is a good suggestion, but the system should never need refrigerant, so,
if a leak, be prepared to charge it rather frequently unless the problem area is repaired.

If the compressor stayed running there should be cool air. Check to see if the
compressor stays on or immediately shuts off, which would indicate that the
refrigerant is low. Gauges are a necessity when servicing the A/C system to
make certain that the refrigerant is low and not another problem with the system
and to add the correct amount of refrigerant.

 

If you're going to DIY recharge, get a can with a gauge attached. The gauges, albeit chintzy, have a dial where you set the ambient temp and get a corresponding pressure range to fill to. The recommended ranges are usually a bit on the higher side so fill a little below the range initially and see if you get cold air. Key is to go slow and get a baseline reading first. Overcharging is worse than undercharging and can quickly destroy expensive AC parts.

 

Being I truly am a novice, I am not certain I understand. I think the compressor stays running when the auto button is "on". And when I push the auto button again (off), the the compressor does immediately shut off and the auxiliary fan stops running.

But I will double check this and post again tomorrow.

Thanks.

Anovice

 

That is different (I assumed it was cycling).

As turbonut said, it should be cool if it stays on, so if it does indeed stay on, then your mixer door must not be moving correctly.

Does the air temp change from heat to ambient when you adjust it?

 

This is becoming more confusing!

The car is parked outside and the current ambient temperature is 54 degrees. I started the car and pressed Auto. The compressor sounded like it came on.

I turned the temperature control all the way up to 85 degrees. As the engine warmed up the fan came on and the heat from the floor. The more the engine warmed up, the higher the fan.

10 minutes later I backed off the temperature control until the fan went from 4 symbols down to 1. That point was 77 degrees. So that seems to indicate the heat is working fine.

I then brought down the temperature control all the way down to 65 degrees. The air now changed from coming from the floor to the 4 dashboard vents. Within a minute or two, the air started to feel very cold, like A/C and not ambient air.

10 minutes later I brought the temperature control up to 68 degrees and at the point the air started to come from the floor, indicating to me that it was calling for heat. So that seems to indicate the A/C is working fine.

Based on the above, I no longer seem to have a problem with the A/C but again the ambient temperature is currently 54 degrees. That being said, when I brought the temperature control all the way down the other day the ambient temperature was in the 60's and hot air was coming from the dashboard vents.

So something seems very different this morning from the other day.

Anovice

 

That does indeed sounds like the mixer door/motor was stuck or something. I haven't had any experience with it (I think failure is very rare).

I would research stuff about it in case the problem persists.