A/C Problems on long trips

[brittania81k]

Ok, I want to see if I am alone..... soemtimes when on long drives (3 hours+ of highway driving) my A/C will start to not blow as hard and not be as cool. 4 starts to blow like 1 or 2. This happens in both the inside and outside air modes. I have noticed it on 2 separate occassions. Both times, it was 80+ degrees outside. Also the car would not start to drain from the A/C drain on the passenger side immediately after stopping, as it would do after a normal drive. Anyone got a clue? (uhm) Road crap plugging it up? Electrical or fan prob? ???????

[dsr70]

I wonder if this is a feature? Maybe the a/c system senses when the outgoing air is not cold enough and kicks the fan speed down. Would be interesting to corroborate this.

Doug

[mazgirl235]

The only long trip I have been on, I had the same prob. It was on a 8 hour trip and my A/C was not cold at all after a few hours.

[ottawaP5]

The AC on these cars will only produce cold air at 1 or 2 fan setting...anything higher will result in semi-cold air. I think the air flows too quickly above 2 to be cooled down enough.

[xvdarkyvx]

i just don't get good ac at all... when it's hot, it's hot...

[gimpo2]

i can't run my a/c for too long cuz it'll stop being cold, and then my car will start to over heat... yay!

[Lord_Zath]

Do you have it set to outside air flowing in or recirculating inside air? Try setting it to recirculation. I've found that it's usually colder and blows harder this way.

But I do agree 3 and 4 are prettymuch a waste if you want cold air.

Another trick if you're alone is to shut off the passenger vent and adjust the remaining 3 vents so they're blowing on different parts of your body. I usually keep the left vent on the left hand/steering wheel, and the right two vents on neck and right hand/steering wheel.

[ottawaP5]

Another trick if you're alone is to shut off the passenger vent and adjust the remaining 3 vents so they're blowing on different parts of your body. I usually keep the left vent on the left hand/steering wheel, and the right two vents on neck and right hand/steering wheel.

Great trick, I'll give it a try. I'll probably forget I shut it off so my passengers will probably suffer next time though :)

[dsr70]

Do you have it set to outside air flowing in or recirculating inside air? Try setting it to recirculation. I've found that it's usually colder and blows harder this way.

To the OP, bonk on the head if you didn't realize this. Of course trying to cool hot outside air means you will not be able to cool below a certain level. A well running ac can cool air down about 30 degrees, less if it's a humid day. So 95F outside air will be 65F or warmer. Not good.

But recooling the same air over and over, which is what the recirc setting does, allows you to get quite a bit colder.

Doug

[mogi]

if automotive A/C is anything like your typical house and/or window A/C, then it is probably freezing up. The coils can get cold enough and build up ice that they become ineffective, probably explains why you weren't draining, it was all ice!

[Mike R]

if automotive A/C is anything like your typical house and/or window A/C, then it is probably freezing up. The coils can get cold enough and build up ice that they become ineffective, probably explains why you weren't draining, it was all ice!

It is the same. If the A/C charge is low, it will ice up. Mine did this on a trip to Kentucky last year. Froze up, check the lines under the hood for ice building up when the A/C stops working. My A/C is great in my car now.

[Kansei]

Be glad your A/C even works on fan position 2 or 3. On my car, the light is off unless you have it on 1 or 4. Of course when I got to the dealership the car was at 50015 miles so I was out of warranty. :(

[Lord_Zath]

what was the car's mileage when you took possession of it? If the odometer was at 16 miles, then technically, you should have still been covered under warranty. Though probably a moot point by now...

[brittania81k]

After much discussion with others, as well as on here, I think the verdict is freezing. (thanks Mogi and other offline). It explains all of the issues.....the air coming from the vents, after several hours of being on, will not be as cold, regardless of the setting (oustide air or recirculating) and outside temperature/humidity, if the coils are frozen. Air cannot pass the coils as readily, hence air speed also slowing. And this also explains the delay in dripping from the drain pan. I know that A/C can't be low.....the car only has 33,000 miles on it, but I will have it checked at my next oil change.....and besides, it works fine the rest of the time. And I am also curious about dsr70's suggestion of a sensor slowing the fan speed....but the slower air, as I mentioned before, could be caused by ice build-up and blockage.....definately something to ask the dealer about. (yupnope)

[trbomp5]

Be glad your A/C even works on fan position 2 or 3. On my car, the light is off unless you have it on 1 or 4. (

mine does the same thing. I only have 15k on my car though. Did they say what it could be that is broken, or wrong?

[chuyler1]

Mine flickers on and off occasionally...and when driving on the highway you can feel the compressor engage and disengage. It was doing it for the first 20 minutes of my ride home the other day, but then it stopped and everything was fine.

[ottawaP5]

Mine flickers on and off occasionally...and when driving on the highway you can feel the compressor engage and disengage. It was doing it for the first 20 minutes of my ride home the other day, but then it stopped and everything was fine.

It'll disengage itself at WOT.

[Kansei]

mine does the same thing. I only have 15k on my car though. Did they say what it could be that is broken, or wrong?

There is a TSB for it. Don't wait like I did, get to the dealership right away. There's a short in the wiring in your climate control unit, they just pop it out and put a new one in.

[trbomp5]

I just need to find out if i still have a warranty because my car is a salvage title. (I bought it totalled, and fixed it)

[Bijou-MP5]

I haven't recharged my AC since I bought the car...I can still sense cold air but I won't make inside of my car cold...
man...I don't want to spend extra $100...

[TheJohnny]

Took mine in for not blowing cold enough. The dealer tested the system and said that #3 blew the coolest out of all 4 settings. Also, they stated that by raising the RPM's around 2000 while sitting still will help to cycle the refrigerant in the system to blow colder. Anyway, just thought I would chime in. OH yeah, this was last summer here in Las Vegas when I was hating out A/C.

[Lord_Zath]

There ya go. So you're sitting at a red light, revving to 2k rpm's and the 85 year old in the Lincoln next to you thinks you wanna race.

[slkt]

I have the same thing too. What I do is blow the A/C air to my hands, you will feel cooler.

[ottawaP5]

Took mine in for not blowing cold enough. The dealer tested the system and said that #3 blew the coolest out of all 4 settings. Also, they stated that by raising the RPM's around 2000 while sitting still will help to cycle the refrigerant in the system to blow colder. Anyway, just thought I would chime in. OH yeah, this was last summer here in Las Vegas when I was hating out A/C.

Are you saying that we should be using fan speed #3 for the most cold air?

[TheJohnny]

There ya go. So you're sitting at a red light, revving to 2k rpm's and the 85 year old in the Lincoln next to you thinks you wanna race.

That made me laugh out loud at work....hahaha

[TheJohnny]

Are you saying that we should be using fan speed #3 for the most cold air?

That's what my dealer told me to do with my car. But we all know how the proteges differ from one to another so good luck with any setting. Go to Checker and buy an A/C thermometer that goes in your vent and see for yourself which is cooler, it's cheap and i'm sure it would help out.

[notjoeyt]

My P5 does the same thing. We make the 4 hour trip between Ottawa and Toronto a lot and we have this problem about 75% of the time. Sometimes it starts about 2.5 hours into the trip. The inside of the car becomes unbearable.

I believe that it is freezing-up. We typically just pull off the hiway into an air-conditioned restaurant for about 15 minutes and everything is fine then.

But, we typically leave ours on the # 2 setting, so I was not sure if it was the problem described in the air conditioning TSB (our light does not go out).

[brittania81k]

Mine flickers on and off occasionally...and when driving on the highway you can feel the compressor engage and disengage. It was doing it for the first 20 minutes of my ride home the other day, but then it stopped and everything was fine.

You may want to get the dealer to check the flicker thing. Mine was shutting the cold air off in fan settings 1 & 2. The AC light would just randomly go out and no more cold air. I'd have to push the button a few times to get it to come back on. Also, the same light would flicker when I switched from 1 to 2 or vice versa. The dealer said there was a TSB for it and the heater control unti was causing the prob.

[chuyler1]

It did it to me again the other day so I will schedule it around my next oil change.

[Action Jackson]

Never had a problem with the A/C. Setting 1 or 2 works for me even with passengers. I don't even know what setting 3 or 4 are like.

I keep it open at the top vents if I have 1 passenger. I put it on Bi-Level if I have rear passengers.

The faster the car's speed, the colder so I end up turning down the temp range.

Sometimes it's just too cold and I turn it to 0.

I must be very lucky.

[Dexter]

There's a short in the wiring in your climate control unit, they just pop it out and put a new one in.

Stop spreading misinformation. Its not a short in the wiring. :rolleyes:

On my car, the air coming out, when the blower is set to upper vents, on fan speed 4 is 59F.
(Hovers around 59F and the compressor will turn itself off, pretty sure this is a factory set limit).

[xxmikkoxx]

Never had a problem with the A/C. Setting 1 or 2 works for me even with passengers. I don't even know what setting 3 or 4 are like.

I keep it open at the top vents if I have 1 passenger. I put it on Bi-Level if I have rear passengers.

The faster the car's speed, the colder so I end up turning down the temp range.

Sometimes it's just too cold and I turn it to 0.

I must be very lucky.

Same here havent had a single issue with my AC 2 years 2 trips to FL and its still gives me ice cold air. Watch tommrow my AC shit the bed :( lol