Air conditioning in Volvo XC70 goes off after a few minutes. It stops getting cold. What can I do to fix

TimothyTyler · Post by **TimothyTyler** » 28 May 2020, 19:58

Never used this before. I have 2004 XC 70 that the air conditioning goes hot on after a minute of sitting still.

Post by **vtl** » 28 May 2020, 20:13

When it cuts off, see if it A/C compressor's magnetic clutch engages. It naturally wears and starts to disengage on its own. If that happens you can remove it and take out one of shims you found there (aka A/C reshimming).

Another reason is overcharged system (too much refrigerant). Get it recharged at a reputable place, they should empty the system, vacuum it and put the correct amount of refrigerant and oil.

TimothyTyler · Post by **TimothyTyler** » 28 May 2020, 20:22

Thank you. The proper refrigerant is in it. We were going to take out a shim today but it would require taking the engine out it seemed. I read this from somewhere else. The shortcut through the tire area won't work for this vehicle.

Post by **amblerman** » 28 May 2020, 20:31

To expand on what vti said.....
Your AC uses a magnetic clutch to spin the compressor.

With AC off , the AC pulley spins free (ie not turning compressor).
When your AC is on a magnet pulls the AC clutch against the free spinning pulley and forces the pulley to start turning the compressor...
A great video of this is found here: viewtopic.php?t=39209

For this to work. the gap between the pulley and magnetic clutch has to be a certain distance and no wider. As things wear, that gap becomes naturally wider. When this happens, the magnet isn't strong enough to keep pulling things together and your AC seems to stop working after a while... (ie it starts working but gap is too wide and disengages when it shouldn't.. so your AC seems to stop working).

To make the gap adjustable, volvo put 3 shims under the pulley: thin, med, thick.
the official fix to this is you take off your serpentine belt, measure gap, take off pulley, measure all shims, and figure out which one, if removed, will bring you back to the allowable gap range. Then you take that shim out, and put it all back together.

All of this is also illustrated in the above link.

An unofficial solution involves closing up gap by putting in bread clips or zip ties to force the clutch plate to bend a little and close up the gap.
read through this thread to get idea of that fix viewtopic.php?f=1&t=31203

That worked for my car for a while.. until the gap widened again and/or the bread clips went fly off on the road somewhere.
I then fixed it for real.

That is IF the problem lies with the gap between your pulley and clutch.
As vti says, it could be due to other reasons.
-A

Post by **vtl** » 28 May 2020, 20:39

Nope, you can leave A/C system pressured. Remove engine fan, protect radiator with a cardboard, unbolt and remove PS pump, alternator and the compressor. Shift compressor backwards. You'll have enough space to remove the clutch.

I usually unbolt PS pump's high-pressure line and plug both holes with these caps:

Alternator can be taken out easily at the air box side. You see what plastic you need to pull. This is easier than opening cooling system at thermostat and loosing some coolant into alternator.

Post by **vtl** » 28 May 2020, 20:41

amblerman wrote: ↑28 May 2020, 20:31 An unofficial solution involves closing up gap by putting in bread clips or zip ties to force the clutch plate to bend a little and close up the gap.
read through this thread to get idea of that fix viewtopic.php?f=1&t=31203

That worked for my car for a while.. until the gap widened again and/or the bread clips went fly off on the road somewhere.
I then fixed it for real.

It does not work on all types of compressors Volvo have used in P2s. On my 02 V70 and 05 XC70 the clutch had/has different configuration, zip ties are not applicable.

Post by **amblerman** » 28 May 2020, 20:47

TimothyTyler wrote: ↑28 May 2020, 20:22 Thank you. The proper refrigerant is in it. We were going to take out a shim today but it would require taking the engine out it seemed. I read this from somewhere else. The shortcut through the tire area won't work for this vehicle.

You were replying when I was replying so our messages crossed paths.

I find it hard to believe this is an engine out type of repair.
I did this on a 1999 s70. Granted, slightly different than your car.
When I did this, I took the bolts out of the alternator, and AC compressor, and was able to the rotate the compressor enough so the clutch face was rotated down and toward the font of the car... I think.

I don't remember doing much through wheel well.

Can you post where you read it requires the engine to come out of car?

-A

Post by **amblerman** » 28 May 2020, 20:47

Oh my gosh.. I can't type fast enough.

Ok vtl's picture is similar to what I did but I believe I rotated it down and worked on clutch from below laying on ground.

But overall, I removed some things and then could move compressor enough to work on it.

Tight fit and required some colorful language at times but once figured out the angles it worked well.

When I used my home grown puller, I thought for sure I was never going to get the clutch off and then it popped. Good feeling.

Post by **chrism** » 29 May 2020, 21:54

I had the clutch gap problem on my 03 V70 with just over 255,000 miles. I was able to add three shims to the front of the compressor clutch by removing the front tire and then removing the crank pulley access plate. The compressor and accessory belt were left in place.

I cut the shims out of some .020 sheet metal and made them long enough that they could be crimped over in a way that they are well secured in place and won’t fly off. It has worked well for nearly a year now.

Jonboy74 · Post by **Jonboy74** » 31 May 2020, 21:40

vtl wrote: ↑28 May 2020, 20:41
amblerman wrote: ↑28 May 2020, 20:31 An unofficial solution involves closing up gap by putting in bread clips or zip ties to force the clutch plate to bend a little and close up the gap.
read through this thread to get idea of that fix viewtopic.php?f=1&t=31203

That worked for my car for a while.. until the gap widened again and/or the bread clips went fly off on the road somewhere.
I then fixed it for real.
It does not work on all types of compressors Volvo have used in P2s. On my 02 V70 and 05 XC70 the clutch had/has different configuration, zip ties are not applicable.

I'm very curious what is different about your 02 V70 from mine. I've got an 02 V70 2.4T and I LITERALLY just did the cable tie trick on mine yesterday. I tried bread clips, but they wouldn't stay. I had to pry the cluch plate back toward the compressor in order to get the cable ties in, and then use a pair of needle nose pliers to pull it through. It was quite a pain, but I wasn't about to spend the time to pull everything apart. I did it all in maybe 30 minutes....but I also have skinny arms.

Mine looks identical to the picture in the post listed above - RE: AC BREAD CLIP FIX Post by osmium » 27 Jul 2010, 20:42

Cheers,

Jonboy