I really don't know a lot about air conditioners. But it was working OK before the weather got this hot. The 100+ degree days seem to have been more than it could stand.
The compressor was replaced not all that long ago. What could be causing it to overheat ? The freon level is not low. And the belt tension seems to be good.
If I hold a meat thermometer to the compressor after driving the car, what would constitute an overly high temperature for that component ?
'94 960 a/c starts out icy cold then blows hot after ten min
that isn't it ... I took the little black plastic rectangle off the side of the compressor only to discover that the wire isn't long enough to plug in, by the length of the black box, whatever it was ... big surprise there ... luckily I had a soldering gun handy that clips to the positive pole on the battery and then to a good ground under the hood so I could splice in a section of the same gauge wire leftover from rewiring a Fender Stratocaster ... but it does the same thing still, runs ice cold for a few minutes then blows hot air, really helpful on a nearly hundred degree day ... too bad indeed that it's not giving diagnostic codes, my next guess is that the temperature sensors that tell the climate control box to stop blowing cold are toast and need replacement, but I'll have to learn more about those before I mess with them, for now we'll commute in the wife's Honda Civic and just hope we don't have an unpleasant encounter with an SUV driven by a phone wielding soccer mom before I can puzzle this out or the heat slacks off enough that we can do without a/c ... further suggestions are solicited ... failing all else, prayer is always good
So you have ruled out the temp sensor on the compressor as the problem.
Since you don't have any climate system codes, it must be an engine management problem. I'm leaning to the pressure sensor for running the coolant fan. Or your coolant temp sensor/thermostat is not working, but inclined to think that the a/c pressure sensor would over rule those and commit the coolant fan to start.
I just noticed that you asked about the original engine in my car. It was replaced because of high oil consumption. When bought new, it never achieved more than 1500 miles to a quart of oil, was told the new car warranty would not cover anything over 1000 miles to a quart. Was told at the time that it would get better, but it didn't, just the opposite, steadily worsened until near the end it was a quart every fill up of gas, 350 miles to a quart. The car is, and was in great shape, no rust, everything worked, and my mechanic, a volvo only mechanic had a brand new never been started engine that was was 10 years old. The only catch was, that it was a training engine for volvo dealers in the area and had been disassembled hundreds of times. But after a very qualified machine shop got a hold of it repaired almost 200 bolt holes with coil inserts. Then replacing the piston rings, bearings, lifters, a couple of new valves, all new seals, modified the timing belt to the 50K spec. I reassembled it in my garage, a really fun and fulfilling project. And now has almost 100k miles on it, it currently uses about 1 quart per oil change, that is fully synthetic and is changed every 6,000 miles.
Just after the engine swap, then went ahead and had every rubber bushing, all springs and shocks in the suspension replaced. Some would say it is not worth it but all I do is drive for my job and pay my own in car expense. Stop and go traffic, big city parking, my cars tend to get beat. I don't care about value, just reliability and looks. All of my cars are worth about $1,000 when I am done with them. So I know the engine inside and out.
The mechanic used to tease me that the only thing he ever did was oil changes, I did all the fun stuff myself.
DanR
Since you don't have any climate system codes, it must be an engine management problem. I'm leaning to the pressure sensor for running the coolant fan. Or your coolant temp sensor/thermostat is not working, but inclined to think that the a/c pressure sensor would over rule those and commit the coolant fan to start.
I just noticed that you asked about the original engine in my car. It was replaced because of high oil consumption. When bought new, it never achieved more than 1500 miles to a quart of oil, was told the new car warranty would not cover anything over 1000 miles to a quart. Was told at the time that it would get better, but it didn't, just the opposite, steadily worsened until near the end it was a quart every fill up of gas, 350 miles to a quart. The car is, and was in great shape, no rust, everything worked, and my mechanic, a volvo only mechanic had a brand new never been started engine that was was 10 years old. The only catch was, that it was a training engine for volvo dealers in the area and had been disassembled hundreds of times. But after a very qualified machine shop got a hold of it repaired almost 200 bolt holes with coil inserts. Then replacing the piston rings, bearings, lifters, a couple of new valves, all new seals, modified the timing belt to the 50K spec. I reassembled it in my garage, a really fun and fulfilling project. And now has almost 100k miles on it, it currently uses about 1 quart per oil change, that is fully synthetic and is changed every 6,000 miles.
Just after the engine swap, then went ahead and had every rubber bushing, all springs and shocks in the suspension replaced. Some would say it is not worth it but all I do is drive for my job and pay my own in car expense. Stop and go traffic, big city parking, my cars tend to get beat. I don't care about value, just reliability and looks. All of my cars are worth about $1,000 when I am done with them. So I know the engine inside and out.
The mechanic used to tease me that the only thing he ever did was oil changes, I did all the fun stuff myself.
DanR
the coolant temperature sensor appears to be OK since the electric fan switches on and off as it should ... took it to another shop today that said they can't hook up their gauges without taking the dash apart and quoted me 8.6 labor hours to do that ... I called the shop back that charged me $860 for replacing the heater core and that said they couldn't find anything wrong with the a/c and had a few quiet words with one of the partners, his ear probably still hurts, if replacing the cheap goop they put in my cooling system with Zerex Gold and distilled water and putting in a new thermostat tomorrow doesn't make any difference, which I don't expect it to, I'll take it back to them and have a few more quiet words with them about charging me $550 for three hours of a wrench monkey's time and suggest to them that they might want to diagnose this without charging me labor this time, I don't expect it to be a quiet conversation ... meantime, I've been looking at a <gag> BMW and a 940 ... what's the deal with 940 engines ? some have the anemic 114hp four and some have a dual overhead cam 150+hp four ? ... I'm not interested in a turbo ... but this 960 is not making points with me when I look back through the service records and see that between me and the previous owner we've spent over $5000 chasing this problem over the last two years and 20k miles so I've about had it with it
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