2005 Ford Freestyle slight cooling in town, better on hwy.

BROWNDELS

MEMBER
2005 FORD FREESTYLE
6 CYL
FWD
AUTOMATIC
80,000 MILES

Bout a week ago noticed that A/C wasn't cooling to well.
put the gauges on it an had a high low side pressure 60 and a low high side pressure (190) at idle on an 87 deg. Day. Today we reclaimed the sys. To replace the expansion valve and only reclaimed 1lb.5 oz. Freon... Now I know that low freon would create a low low side pressure but felt that I needed to recharge fully to test system. Not much changed so we reclaimed again and replaced the expansion valve. After evacuating and recharging the system, again not much change. Taped the manifold to the windshield and went on a drive. 65 MPH, 1500 RPM, 100 deg. Outside, 60 psi low side, 190 high side, 60 deg center outlet air temp. So i'm sure the compressor is bad but I read something from another poster on another site about a regulator on top of the compressor that he replaced and fixed his problems. $35.00 part. What's your take on this... Thanks... "Answers $2.00, Correct Answers $5.00, Dumb looks are still free." Lol

2 Replies

BLUELIGHTNIN6

MECHANIC
16,542 POSTS

Hello and thanks for donating

Have you inserted a thermometer into the vents to see how cold of air it is putting out? Rule of thumb is if it is putting out 20F lower air than outside air than it's working good. Obviously if the low pressure is 60 that is a bit high, 55 and below is where it should be and as you said the high pressure is too low because it should be 200 or more. Most likely the compressor is failing but first make sure the condenser fan is running. Is the compressor making noise or is it froze up? Usually they will put out signs before they completely fail but not always, especially in this case where the pressures are just barely out of spec. If the refrigerant level is good than the compressor is indeed the most likely fault.

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Tuesday, August 24th, 2010 AT 3:11 PM

BROWNDELS

MEMBER
8 POSTS

One thing that I do when we buy a new car is put a thermometer in the duct of that car. On the freestyle it had the capacity of a walk in cooler to cool the car off. It would easily put out 35-40 deg air from the center duct on low fan speed 45 deg on high. You talked about signs of problems, ours has finally stopped grunting when you start the car with the A/C on, after setting all night. To me it's a design flaw to put a compressor so low in the engine compartment. After driving the car with the A/C on the shutting the car off overnight, all the oil drains downward to the compressor and loads it up. Then when you start the car and the A/C kicks on it has to pump all the oil out of compressor.

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Tuesday, August 24th, 2010 AT 10:12 PM