3ztwint

R1R,

Sorry to have not updated yet, but I'm still workin' on it, I've actually spent most of my free time last week rebuilding a carb and tuning up a lawnmower that I was given so I guess I've been lazy on the A/C fix. For yours it sounds like the low freon was it, especially when you can confirm it via the site glass. Mine is likely the EV as I was talking to my dad about it too, and I for the life of me could not figure out how an expansion valve could be only "partially plugged" or could only work part time; what we figured was that when the orafice of the EV is partially blocked, it can keep up when the condenser is still below operating temp, but as the car/outside warms up then it can no longer keep up. I don't know for sure, but the past few times I've started it up the A/c worked great for the whole drive home, but this was at night when it was cool out. I think Im gonna get it to the point where the A/c stops working and then put a gauge on it to see if I get a large pressure differential from the low to high side (i.e. maybe one side will be running a near vacuum while the other has sky high pressure) Don't know for sure, but I think the EV is the most likely culprit from what I've read on here, but with it being intermittent I don't know that I could completely rule out some sort of CPU/electrical issue; any additional advice would be most appreciated guys, especially before I go out and rip open my dash!

THanks!
J

R1R

Thanks for the update. I will keep you updated on my car as well. It has been around 5 days and everything seems to be working okay so far. I called around and my A/C shop wants around $700 to replace the expansion valve and receiver dryer. I think most of the labor involves taking apart the passenger side of the dash. If I can do that myself, I think that I can save a lot of money. If you do decide to do it, please take some pictures of the process. It would be really helpful.

This should help as well, it shows what needs to be taken apart:

http://www.justanswer.com/uploads/sn...r_remove_2.pdf

3ztwint

Awesome, thanks for taking the time to find that buddy! I actually do have an update, I was talking to my buddy who is an engineer and a pretty bright guy, and he thought that maybe I actually had a issue like yours where the freon was too low, however I filled it too much b/c I put about 1.75 cans in it, so his theory is that it blows ice cold until it reaches operating temp and then the high pressure limit switch shuts it down. Not sure if this will be true, but I did find the sight glass (right up by the radiator/high port and will be going to get a manifold gauge to test both sides to see for sure if: A. I am too high on freon overall and just need to bleed some off OR B: that I am getting large pressure differentials from high to low (IE lower than spec on the low side and much higher than spec on the high side) to rule out an expansion valve issue. It was just bugging me that it would be an intermittent thing since I generally consider a small orafice like the EV to be either plugged or not plugged since its such a small opening. anyone with more insight feel free to chime in.