So I got my car's condenser replaced after the mechanic accidentally whacked it and broke it. This was a few months back.

Now it's getting hot, and I started driving my car to work, as it has nice new cold A/C, after that recharge and it blows cold enough to make me want to turn it off....when it works.

Play by Play.

Picked up the car from the shop, A/C working perfectly fine, nice and cool, and it's the beginning spring time, so not using the A/C. No worries, everything is good to go.

Flash forward to 2 days ago. Turn on the A/C because it's a whopping 91 already, and it's freakin' hot in the car. Turn on the A/C when the car is just starting, like I've always done, it's getting cold, good to go. Driving onto the highway, (like 2-3 minutes to this point of the a/c being on) and the passenger side starts blowing hot air. WTF?! then the driver side also is not blowing cold air anymore. FUDGE. The A/C is broken again, and now I need to take it to an A/C guy to figure it out...

Yesterday rolls around, this time its like 81-85. Turn on the car, just use the air, no A/C. Let the car warm up, blow the hot air out of the vents, decide to kick on the A/C and see what happens. Icy cold, all the way home (10 minute commute on the highway, with about a 5 minute drive through city streets)
So I'm thinking maybe it was just hot and the car for some reason needed me to just have the air circulating for a while before I popped on the A/C.

Today, did the same thing, and now it's having the original problem.
Did a quick diag of the car, just to see what's going on under the hood. Apparently the compressor kicks on, starts to cool, then the condenser, for some reason, starts to vibrate, and the compressor kicks off for a few seconds, then starts up again. Same thing happens, over and over. I just shut it off for now, no point in having it blow something up if it malfunctions.

What could be causing this? I was thinking maybe the plug was switched on the condenser, since it is a 4 pronged plug (the [+] one not the in line plug that attaches to the radiator suppport) but that didn't make a difference.

Maybe the lines need to be cleaned out or something? Some blockage is causing the line to clog? High and Low lines connected wrong?

Did some quick searching here and came up with nothing. To me it actually seems like the lines could be connected backwards, theoretically, but I have no way to cross reference it as of yet.

 

Bump, Anybody?

 

maybe it's inadvertently picking up a low freon signal. I'd check the pressure with a recharge kit and then look at the sensor. I think it's going to be tough to troubleshoot based on it's behavior alone.

 

dont EVER check pressure with a recharge kit OP check the pressures with gauges.

by any chance,did you replace the drier/accumulator when you did the compressor? did you flush the lines to make sure nothing was in it before putting on the compressor.....

why arent you taking this back to the shop who did it btw? it sounds like your hitting a low pressure limit like we use in standard HVAC (its made to keep you from burning up the compressor) but i didnt think our car had them.....

 

I'm pretty much done with that shop. I'm not taking it back because I don't want to bother with trying to get them to fix it right, they'll probably just break something else.

Never replaced the compressor, just the condenser.

I've another mechanic referred by a friend that I'm going to take the car to...just need to get some free time to drop it off.

 

Check to see if your fresh air filter behind the glove box is clogged. Was a stop leak product used? If yes this could cause a magnetic clutch engagement problem. Was the system evacuated after it was repaired? Low pressure lines should be cold to the touch. High pressure lines should be hot. Check the belt tension.