07 S60 AC Help - Hot air/cycling compressor

[soulvoid21]

From what I can tell you have had a refrigerant charge of 700kg, 1000kg and 1300kg in the system. The dealer said it needs 1000g based on your VIN. If the compressor is short cycling at both 700kg and 1000kg charge levels there's another problem other than the charge. If the system pressure is too low or too high the compressor will be commanded to shut off, the pressure switch is on the receiver/drier. What are the gauge readings saying?
If the pressure sensor is working correctly and there's is a blockage in the system, I would expect you to see have a very high pressure reading on the high side gauge and a lower than expected reading on the low side gauge. Another indication of a blockage is the gauge readings after the running the compressor and watching how long it take for the low and high gauges to equalize after shutting off the engine. It shouldn't take more than a few minutes for these gauges to equalize. When you replaced the condenser was the receiver/drier also replaced? When your mechanic has the system apart for flushing it should be easy to determine if there's any blockage in the condenser, evaporator or hoses. You can't flush the expansion valve or receiver/drier but you should check these for blockage with some compressed air with these components. Because you've replaced the condenser and will be replacing the expansion valve you should pay special attention to the receiver/drier if this has not been replaced, this will be a likely area for blockage. Check the old expansion valve with air too, at room temp air should flow freely through it.
Did the short cycling begin with the new compressor?

Dryer was replaced as part of the condenser, it came with the replacement.

Short cycling started after changing the condenser first. Cycling continued with the new compressor.

Idea to check for blockage is exactly as you said. Tear it down and try with compressed air on the parts possible. Just changing the expansion valve regardless because it’s cheap/easy enough, and one less thing for me to worry about later on.

I don’t know the pressure readings yet. They vacuumed the system in preparation to tear it down to check for blockages. So I guess that’s our next step. If we don’t find any and continue to have issues, I’ll get exact pressure readings during multiple scenarios.

So the short cycling of the compressor began when the condenser was replaced, the short cycling happened with both compressors? The receiver/drier was replaced at the same time too? Was the pressure switch from the old receiver/drier transferred to the new receiver/drier, was the wiring harness connector plugged in correctly to the sensor? I'm having a hard time thinking the new parts have a blockage so am questioning the installation of the new parts and something may have been done incorrectly. It's not out the question there could be something could be wrong with the condenser or receiver/drier but this seems less probable to me.

Yes, yes, yes and yes, lol. I'm not thinking it has anything to do with the new parts either, but an existing partial blockage or problem with the expansion valve, that only became worse after introducing a vacuum to the system. And with the AC causing the car to completely stall out points to over-pressure in my eyes.

Just waiting at this point for him to check for blockages/attempt to flush the system. Thankfully, I'm not in a huge rush as I have a beater Jeep Liberty I can drive for the time. Once he completes the flush, or attempts it, I'm sure we'll have more information to go on.

[firstv70volvo]

" And with the AC causing the car to completely stall out points to over-pressure in my eyes."

I'm confused now, is this happening with the new compressor and other parts? I thought the problem now with new parts installed is the compressor is short cycling and no cold air, I though the huge load on the engine was resolved with the new compressor? You did mention the system was badly overcharge at one point but I thought this was corrected.

[soulvoid21]

" And with the AC causing the car to completely stall out points to over-pressure in my eyes."

I'm confused now, is this happening with the new compressor and other parts? I thought the problem now with new parts installed is the compressor is short cycling and no cold air, I though the huge load on the engine was resolved with the new compressor? You did mention the system was badly overcharge at one point but I thought this was corrected.

The stalling only happened with the new compressor, condenser and when the system was accidently overcharged. Prior to that, it was simply short cycling with the new parts. No stalling at all.

Excessive load while driving was with the completely factory system. This was something I noticed happening gradually over time (3-4 years), along with hard starts and failed starters.

I can't really test the excessive load issues while driving now, since we can't seem to get it to work at all. It's either short cycling or has so much excessive pressure that it's stalling. So we're kind of stuck with our only option left being to check for some kind of blockage, whether it be mechanical, build-up of some kind, foreign object, etc.

I expect I won't have any kind of actual update until middle of next week at the earliest, or the following week when the expansive valve comes in. Car is not in my possession at the moment, it's at his garage still.

[firstv70volvo]

" And with the AC causing the car to completely stall out points to over-pressure in my eyes."

I'm confused now, is this happening with the new compressor and other parts? I thought the problem now with new parts installed is the compressor is short cycling and no cold air, I though the huge load on the engine was resolved with the new compressor? You did mention the system was badly overcharge at one point but I thought this was corrected.

The stalling only happened with the new compressor, condenser and when the system was accidently overcharged. Prior to that, it was simply short cycling with the new parts. No stalling at all.

Excessive load while driving was with the completely factory system. This was something I noticed happening gradually over time (3-4 years), along with hard starts and failed starters.

I can't really test the excessive load issues while driving now, since we can't seem to get it to work at all. It's either short cycling or has so much excessive pressure that it's stalling. So we're kind of stuck with our only option left being to check for some kind of blockage, whether it be mechanical, build-up of some kind, foreign object, etc.

I expect I won't have any kind of actual update until middle of next week at the earliest, or the following week when the expansive valve comes in. Car is not in my possession at the moment, it's at his garage still.

I though the overcharged condition was corrected. If so when the charge was correct did the stalling problem go away and the only problem remaining was the compressor short cycling? Maybe I misunderstood, if the charge amount was corrected and there was still a stalling problem then the compressor was likely damaged, this is what I'm trying to understand.

[soulvoid21]

Quick update, so that I don’t forget what happened later on.

Initial issue was just short-cycling, even with the new compressor. But after vacuuming and recharging a few times, that short cycling became symptoms of a ceasing compressor after 2-3 attempts, and that’s when overcharging started appearing, along with stalling.

New expansion valve came in, mechanic completely disassembled the AC system and checked all components for blockages and debris best as possible, none found. Ran cleaner through the lines and such as well. Put it back together with the new expansion valve..

Started the car, AC auto engaged, ran for about 10 seconds but was making terrible noises grinding/squealing noises. Compressor then ceased up, belt (or AC clutch) started smoking, car stalled out. Same as it was doing before, but worse. This with only 700g or 1.54lb of refrigerant to be cautious of overcharging.

Mechanic thinks that the new compressor was not pre-filled with oil as stated, or just manufacturing defects. They took it out and there was no oil in it. New compressor is on the way from FCP already, so fingers crossed that it works out.. Going on 3 months now with this car in the shop.. Between waiting 3-4 days for parts, then a week or more for him to have time to continue working on it. Thank god he’s a good guy and is giving me a break on labor for all these issues.

[firstv70volvo]

Quick update, so that I don’t forget what happened later on.

Initial issue was just short-cycling, even with the new compressor. But after vacuuming and recharging a few times, that short cycling became symptoms of a ceasing compressor after 2-3 attempts, and that’s when overcharging started appearing, along with stalling.

New expansion valve came in, mechanic completely disassembled the AC system and checked all components for blockages and debris best as possible, none found. Ran cleaner through the lines and such as well. Put it back together with the new expansion valve..

Started the car, AC auto engaged, ran for about 10 seconds but was making terrible noises grinding/squealing noises. Compressor then ceased up, belt (or AC clutch) started smoking, car stalled out. Same as it was doing before, but worse. This with only 700g or 1.54lb of refrigerant to be cautious of overcharging.

Mechanic thinks that the new compressor was not pre-filled with oil as stated, or just manufacturing defects. They took it out and there was no oil in it. New compressor is on the way from FCP already, so fingers crossed that it works out.. Going on 3 months now with this car in the shop.. Between waiting 3-4 days for parts, then a week or more for him to have time to continue working on it. Thank god he’s a good guy and is giving me a break on labor for all these issues.

The total oil capacity for the AC system in my 2001 V70 is 6.75 oz and when the AC compressor is replaced the oil in the old compressor must be drained and measured to know how much oil should be added into the new compressor. For my car, if the oil drained from the old AC compressor is less than 2.3 oz the new compressor should be filled with 2.3 oz of new oil. If the old compressor contained more than 2.3 oz of oil the new compressor should be filled with the amount of oil drained from the old compressor. If any AC component is replaced then oil must be added in the amount of 1.7 oz for the evaporator, 1 oz for the condenser or receiver/drier and 0.3 oz of oil for the AC hoses. Do you know what your mechanic did when he replaced the AC compressor? Did he measure the amount of oil in the old compressor? Did he drain and measure the amount of oil in the new AC compressor?
If you did several evacuations and recharges did you use the recovered refrigerant or new refrigerant each time to recharge the system? After your mechanic flushed the system did he add back oil in the amount of what's required if the components were replaced?
If the new AC compressor put in your car did seize up you'll need to determine if it polluted the AC system with damaged compressor pieces.
So what you've called overcharging, high-load, stalling may have been an AC compressor starved of oil? Was there really no oil in the new compressor? Typically the new AC compressors come with more than enough oil in them and it's common you have to remove some oil from them to match what came out of the old compressor.

[soulvoid21]

Quick update, so that I don’t forget what happened later on.

Initial issue was just short-cycling, even with the new compressor. But after vacuuming and recharging a few times, that short cycling became symptoms of a ceasing compressor after 2-3 attempts, and that’s when overcharging started appearing, along with stalling.

New expansion valve came in, mechanic completely disassembled the AC system and checked all components for blockages and debris best as possible, none found. Ran cleaner through the lines and such as well. Put it back together with the new expansion valve..

Started the car, AC auto engaged, ran for about 10 seconds but was making terrible noises grinding/squealing noises. Compressor then ceased up, belt (or AC clutch) started smoking, car stalled out. Same as it was doing before, but worse. This with only 700g or 1.54lb of refrigerant to be cautious of overcharging.

Mechanic thinks that the new compressor was not pre-filled with oil as stated, or just manufacturing defects. They took it out and there was no oil in it. New compressor is on the way from FCP already, so fingers crossed that it works out.. Going on 3 months now with this car in the shop.. Between waiting 3-4 days for parts, then a week or more for him to have time to continue working on it. Thank god he’s a good guy and is giving me a break on labor for all these issues.

The total oil capacity for the AC system in my 2001 V70 is 6.75 oz and when the AC compressor is replaced the oil in the old compressor must be drained and measured to know how much oil should be added into the new compressor. For my car, if the oil drained from the old AC compressor is less than 2.3 oz the new compressor should be filled with 2.3 oz of new oil. If the old compressor contained more than 2.3 oz of oil the new compressor should be filled with the amount of oil drained from the old compressor. If any AC component is replaced then oil must be added in the amount of 1.7 oz for the evaporator, 1 oz for the condenser or receiver/drier and 0.3 oz of oil for the AC hoses. Do you know what your mechanic did when he replaced the AC compressor? Did he measure the amount of oil in the old compressor? Did he drain and measure the amount of oil in the new AC compressor?
If you did several evacuations and recharges did you use the recovered refrigerant or new refrigerant each time to recharge the system? After your mechanic flushed the system did he add back oil in the amount of what's required if the components were replaced?
If the new AC compressor put in your car did seize up you'll need to determine if it polluted the AC system with damaged compressor pieces.
So what you've called overcharging, high-load, stalling may have been an AC compressor starved of oil? Was there really no oil in the new compressor? Typically the new AC compressors come with more than enough oil in them and it's common you have to remove some oil from them to match what came out of the old compressor.

I can’t really answer most of those questions right now, but I will clarify them when I can talk to him.

I’m going to assume he didn’t measure the oil in the old compressor. He most likely assumed that the new compressor being pre-filled meant it should be ready to-go. I don’t think he added oil to the condenser when he swapped that out either. He never made mention of it. This is my first time having any AC work done myself, so I didn’t know these things myself to have asked him prior.

Just reiterating that he’s not an AC specialist or properly trained, just basic knowledge and what he’s been told. A lot of R’n’R with AC stuff for the most part. So it’s possible he put oil in the condenser and just didn’t mention it.

As for reuse of refrigerant, it’s been a mix of both just reusing and replacing with new. Depends on what he tried at that time.

He is going to check if the compressor sent anything up the lines again, before putting this replacement on.

It’s possible the compressor came with oil, and if he never added any to the replacement condenser and it ended up starving the compressor I suppose? I’ll have to talk with him and see exactly what he did/is doing.

Are there’re any other specific tips like the above that you can give? If he cleaned out the system and checked for blockages as he said, I assume that would remove oil from the system and he’d have to add more. I don’t think he’d be ignorant enough to not do so, but he is getting older, haha.

[abscate]

The P2 is prone to liquid pooling in the compressor if it is overcharged. The ECU kicks the compressor over when cranking to push this out. It’s not good to power up the compressor with liquid in it.

[firstv70volvo]

Quick update, so that I don’t forget what happened later on.

Initial issue was just short-cycling, even with the new compressor. But after vacuuming and recharging a few times, that short cycling became symptoms of a ceasing compressor after 2-3 attempts, and that’s when overcharging started appearing, along with stalling.

New expansion valve came in, mechanic completely disassembled the AC system and checked all components for blockages and debris best as possible, none found. Ran cleaner through the lines and such as well. Put it back together with the new expansion valve..

Started the car, AC auto engaged, ran for about 10 seconds but was making terrible noises grinding/squealing noises. Compressor then ceased up, belt (or AC clutch) started smoking, car stalled out. Same as it was doing before, but worse. This with only 700g or 1.54lb of refrigerant to be cautious of overcharging.

Mechanic thinks that the new compressor was not pre-filled with oil as stated, or just manufacturing defects. They took it out and there was no oil in it. New compressor is on the way from FCP already, so fingers crossed that it works out.. Going on 3 months now with this car in the shop.. Between waiting 3-4 days for parts, then a week or more for him to have time to continue working on it. Thank god he’s a good guy and is giving me a break on labor for all these issues.

The total oil capacity for the AC system in my 2001 V70 is 6.75 oz and when the AC compressor is replaced the oil in the old compressor must be drained and measured to know how much oil should be added into the new compressor. For my car, if the oil drained from the old AC compressor is less than 2.3 oz the new compressor should be filled with 2.3 oz of new oil. If the old compressor contained more than 2.3 oz of oil the new compressor should be filled with the amount of oil drained from the old compressor. If any AC component is replaced then oil must be added in the amount of 1.7 oz for the evaporator, 1 oz for the condenser or receiver/drier and 0.3 oz of oil for the AC hoses. Do you know what your mechanic did when he replaced the AC compressor? Did he measure the amount of oil in the old compressor? Did he drain and measure the amount of oil in the new AC compressor?
If you did several evacuations and recharges did you use the recovered refrigerant or new refrigerant each time to recharge the system? After your mechanic flushed the system did he add back oil in the amount of what's required if the components were replaced?
If the new AC compressor put in your car did seize up you'll need to determine if it polluted the AC system with damaged compressor pieces.
So what you've called overcharging, high-load, stalling may have been an AC compressor starved of oil? Was there really no oil in the new compressor? Typically the new AC compressors come with more than enough oil in them and it's common you have to remove some oil from them to match what came out of the old compressor.

I can’t really answer most of those questions right now, but I will clarify them when I can talk to him.

I’m going to assume he didn’t measure the oil in the old compressor. He most likely assumed that the new compressor being pre-filled meant it should be ready to-go. I don’t think he added oil to the condenser when he swapped that out either. He never made mention of it. This is my first time having any AC work done myself, so I didn’t know these things myself to have asked him prior.

Just reiterating that he’s not an AC specialist or properly trained, just basic knowledge and what he’s been told. A lot of R’n’R with AC stuff for the most part. So it’s possible he put oil in the condenser and just didn’t mention it.

As for reuse of refrigerant, it’s been a mix of both just reusing and replacing with new. Depends on what he tried at that time.

He is going to check if the compressor sent anything up the lines again, before putting this replacement on.

It’s possible the compressor came with oil, and if he never added any to the replacement condenser and it ended up starving the compressor I suppose? I’ll have to talk with him and see exactly what he did/is doing.

Are there’re any other specific tips like the above that you can give? If he cleaned out the system and checked for blockages as he said, I assume that would remove oil from the system and he’d have to add more. I don’t think he’d be ignorant enough to not do so, but he is getting older, haha.

This is for my 2001 V70, your car AC system oil capacity may not be exactly the same but should be close.
If the evaporator was flushed then add 1.7 oz of PAG oil to the system, if the condenser was flushed add 1 oz, if the receiver/dried was replaced add 1 oz (cannot be flushed), if the AC hoses were flushed add 0.3 oz per hose. For the compressor have a minimum of 2.37 oz of oil in it if all the other AC system components have the recommended amount of oil in them. If some AC system component oil is needed (because it was flushed out or replaced) this amount of oil can be added to the compressor or to the output hose of the compressor. The goal is to have the correct amount of total oil capacity in the AC system, not too much or too little. The amount of oil specified per component is an estimate of the amount of oil that settles in each component when the AC system is off.

oz cm3
1.69 50 Evaporator
1.01 30 Condenser
1.01 30 Receiver Drier
0.34 10 Hose
0.34 10 Hose
4.40 130 Sum minus Compressor
2.37 70 Compressor
6.76 200 total oil

[soulvoid21]

So time to beat this dead horse again... I'm back at it with this cars AC system.. I'm about to sell this car if if I can't fix it soon. Frustration speaking here but soon to become a financial issue..

To recap what has happened. AC Compressor has been replaced twice (first time we think there was no oil in it, and it seized. factory unit experienced short cycling too, so we assumed bad clutch as there was clutch dust all over the engine bay), condenser with dryer has been replaced twice (first time due to bad weld cracking), and EVAP Expansion Valve has also been replaced once. All Nissin parts from FCP, and the compressor is pre-oiled (and he checked it had oil before installing the second time).

Still dealing with short cycling, blowing "kinda" cold for first few minutes on passengers side only before going hot on both sides. Has been checked for leaks 5 times while holding vacuum over 3 day periods each time, zero leaks. Never lost any pressure/vacuum. He has also checked for complete blockages and ran cleaner through the original EVAP and lines, came out clean. Dye has been added as well, no leaks what so ever.

My mechanic isn't an AC professional, so I purchased a 4 way gauge set to help me with this. I'll go to him though if something large needs replaced again.

I know this isn't the proper way, but I'm filling this system based on "feel", not measuring in grams or lbs. I don't have a setup to be able to do this by weight. But I've filled many leaky AC systems in my time with crappy auto part store tools/refill tanks and never had this many issues. I also never once had a single issue with this AC system in the 180k miles that I've put on this car until we replaced the condenser due to damage/causing overheating from blocking airflow to radiator, intercooler, etc. AC was working perfectly fine when the car was dropped off for initial work, ruling blend door issues and such.

So today we have a 80F sunny day. Ran the car for 15 minutes with AC on before connecting the gauges. Connected the 4 way gauge to high and low side. Had 30psi that would cycle down to 0psi when running on the low side, and about 75psi on the high side. Added refringent very slowly until the system stopped short cycling. Colder air on passengers side but warm on drivers still. Let it run for 10 minutes like this, no change. Pressures were around 40-45 on low and 90-100 on high. Slowly kept adding more up to 50psi on the low side, compressor locked up, smoked the clutch and then disengaged..

Those pressures seem to be way off to me. Based on the temp and humidity level (we just had thunderstorms last night and everything is still wet, humidity is around 60% right now), I'd expect low side to be lower, and high side to be higher..

Do I just have horrible luck and have another bad compressor? I purchase all my parts through FCP so lifetime warranty makes that less of a headache, but I'm stumped. Should I toss a new EVAP in it just to be safe, and assume there's a partial blockage? I love this car and really don't want to get rid of it, but I can't keep dumping money into it like this.