A/C does not blow cold air

Tiny
PIGEON 56
  • MEMBER
  • 2001 SATURN SL2
  • 4 CYL
  • 2WD
  • AUTOMATIC
  • 244,000 MILES
I've had the car since 2006 and it worked until last summer. Clutch engages but no cold air. If it's in park and I accelerate the clutch will sometimes kick off and on. What can this be caused from? The A/C button on the instrument panel seems faulty. Could this be the problem?
Saturday, March 16th, 2019 AT 7:20 PM

1 Reply

Tiny
SCGRANTURISMO
  • MECHANIC
  • 4,897 POSTS
Hello,

This sounds to me like you probably need to recharge your vehicle's A/C system with some Freon. Freon is what your vehicle's A/C system uses to cool your vehicle. Your vehicle's A/C system is really a heat exchanger, meaning that it doesn't blow cold on you, it actually replaces the hot air with colder air. It does this by taking the Freon while it passes through the cabin of your vehicle, it goes through a small radiator in your dash called an evaporator, where it collects the heat. This is the same principal as a cold can of pop "sweating" on a hot day. It then passes out of the cabin into the engine compartment where it goes through an accumulator, taking the liquid out of it and on to the compressor. It is compressed, adding more heat and the compressor is also the pump for the circuit. next it goes through a condenser which is radiator in front of your radiator and takes all the heat out and turns the Freon back into liquid. Next it goes to the thermal expansion valve which let's just a tiny bit of Freon through at a time. This valve turns the Freon extremely cold. In a nutshell this is how a vehicle's A/C system works.
So as you see, with Freon it will not work, just blow hot air. I have included a few links down below for you to go to.

https://www.2carpros.com/articles/car-air-conditioner-not-working-or-is-weak
https://www.2carpros.com/articles/air-conditioner-leak-detection
https://www.2carpros.com/articles/air-conditioner-how-to-add-freon

Please go through these guides and get back to us with what you find out.

Thanks,
Alex
2CarPros
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Sunday, March 17th, 2019 AT 10:52 PM

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