07 S60 AC Help - Hot air/cycling compressor

[soulvoid21]

that icarsoft scanner looks very nice, the software is more logical then vida.

For the price and reliability, it's not bad. But I will say the initial interfaces aren't too user friendly. I've been working in IT for 15 years professionally and still have to stumble my way through it. I've used my mechanics Snap-on scanner and that's way more user friendly. Night and day difference.

[soulvoid21]

So, bad news.. New compressor was installed. System was charged to 1.54lb (or .7kg/700) as that's what the sticker on my radiator support says to charge it to. Same results, cold at times on passengers side, ambient temp on drivers side. Short cycling and only running for a second or two at a time. They added .3lb more and the compressor stays running as expected, but only passengers side gets cold still.

Added a little extra to total out to 2.2lb (or 1kg/1000g) and the side of the condenser blew out again and the new compressor seized.. Which his AllData, Snap-On AC charging system, and the dealer all say it requires 1000g's, but then why does it say 1.54lbs/.7kg on the radiator support? This car was never in an accident and is all original.

We're at a loss. I'm probably going to throw an evaporator along with the new condenser at it just to verify if it's a partial blockage or not on the original evap, but seriously contemplating selling this car and getting something else.. Why when we add the proper amount of refrigerant does this keep happening? Thank god for FCP's lifetime warranty or I'd be like $2k+ in the hole on this issue at this point (I still have to pay for labor each time too obviously). Way more than the car is even worth in my area.

Pressures were still wildly all over the place too. Confirmed the climate doors are all opening properly and air is flowing as before. Again cabin filter was replaced last summer so it's not clogged but we even verified anyway. Coils on the evap are clean(ish) for it's age and was working perfectly fine prior to any work being done.

If anyone has any advise before I just push this car into a lake, I'd appreciate it..

EDIT: And to clarify on the above. They did measure the temps coming out of the vents as well. When I say passengers side gets cold, I mean it was blowing 40F out of the vent and 65-70F out of the drivers side. What's even weirder, the vent by the passengers door would get COLDER than the passengers vent in the center console by about 5-10F.

Cycle it to full hot and back but the same thing happens (and boy does it get hot when it's on full heat..). And another reminder, full AC/climate control system was working perfectly fine for nearly 10 years before any work was done to this car, so I'm highly skeptical that it's a bad sensor, blend door, motors, etc. I want to point to a partial blockage in the evaporator but I'm not a professional either.

If anyone knows of a good Volvo specialist in the North Eastern Pennsylvania area, I'd be more than happy to get another set of eyes on it. But I do not trust the stealerships around here to take it to them. I could try another independent shop that's local here but I think a Volvo specialist is in order at this point..

[cn90]

I have not read through the whole thread but have you checked the linkage arm that controls the vents?
That linkage arm is known to break if one does not move it to "hot" position during heater core job...

[soulvoid21]

I have not read through the whole thread but have you checked the linkage arm that controls the vents?
That linkage arm is known to break if one does not move it to "hot" position during heater core job...

We've both already used snake cams down the vents multiple times to confirm the doors are working properly. Temp and direction doors are all moving smoothly and fully into heat/AC positions.

[firstv70volvo]

So, bad news.. New compressor was installed. System was charged to 1.54lb (or .7kg/700) as that's what the sticker on my radiator support says to charge it to. Same results, cold at times on passengers side, ambient temp on drivers side. Short cycling and only running for a second or two at a time. They added .3lb more and the compressor stays running as expected, but only passengers side gets cold still.

Added a little extra to total out to 2.2lb (or 1kg/1000g) and the side of the condenser blew out again and the new compressor seized.. Which his AllData, Snap-On AC charging system, and the dealer all say it requires 1000g's, but then why does it say 1.54lbs/.7kg on the radiator support? This car was never in an accident and is all original.

We're at a loss. I'm probably going to throw an evaporator along with the new condenser at it just to verify if it's a partial blockage or not on the original evap, but seriously contemplating selling this car and getting something else.. Why when we add the proper amount of refrigerant does this keep happening? Thank god for FCP's lifetime warranty or I'd be like $2k+ in the hole on this issue at this point (I still have to pay for labor each time too obviously). Way more than the car is even worth in my area.

Pressures were still wildly all over the place too. Confirmed the climate doors are all opening properly and air is flowing as before. Again cabin filter was replaced last summer so it's not clogged but we even verified anyway. Coils on the evap are clean(ish) for it's age and was working perfectly fine prior to any work being done.

If anyone has any advise before I just push this car into a lake, I'd appreciate it..

EDIT: And to clarify on the above. They did measure the temps coming out of the vents as well. When I say passengers side gets cold, I mean it was blowing 40F out of the vent and 65-70F out of the drivers side. What's even weirder, the vent by the passengers door would get COLDER than the passengers vent in the center console by about 5-10F.

Cycle it to full hot and back but the same thing happens (and boy does it get hot when it's on full heat..). And another reminder, full AC/climate control system was working perfectly fine for nearly 10 years before any work was done to this car, so I'm highly skeptical that it's a bad sensor, blend door, motors, etc. I want to point to a partial blockage in the evaporator but I'm not a professional either.

If anyone knows of a good Volvo specialist in the North Eastern Pennsylvania area, I'd be more than happy to get another set of eyes on it. But I do not trust the stealerships around here to take it to them. I could try another independent shop that's local here but I think a Volvo specialist is in order at this point..

For the compressor to seize and the condenser to blow out there's too much liquid refrigerant or oil in the system or a near total blockage but this seems to be a less likely source of the problem because the system does function (cold air) at least for the passenger side. I'm beginning to suspect there's been too much added oil to the system with all the work that's been done. Too much oil could be from the oil charge in the new compressors compared to the amount in the replaced compressors (new and old compressors oil not drained and measured) or too much oil could have added as component replacement were made. Oil collects in the condenser, evaporator, receiver/drier and compressor so to get to a known oil capacity point the evaporator and condenser need to be flushed if not replaced and the oil in the compressor needs to be drained and measured. The lines should be flushed too, the receiver/drier, compressor and thermal expansion valve should not be flushed. It also seems like you have vent door problem but that's a much different problem than the AC system problem.
The compressor should be shut off if the system high side pressure gets too high but if there's a liquid "slugging" problem the compressor may seize or other the condenser may blow first before the pressure sensor transducer can detect a problem. Just speculating, I could be wrong about all this but there can only be so many problems that can cause the problems you're encountering.

[soulvoid21]

So, bad news.. New compressor was installed. System was charged to 1.54lb (or .7kg/700) as that's what the sticker on my radiator support says to charge it to. Same results, cold at times on passengers side, ambient temp on drivers side. Short cycling and only running for a second or two at a time. They added .3lb more and the compressor stays running as expected, but only passengers side gets cold still.

Added a little extra to total out to 2.2lb (or 1kg/1000g) and the side of the condenser blew out again and the new compressor seized.. Which his AllData, Snap-On AC charging system, and the dealer all say it requires 1000g's, but then why does it say 1.54lbs/.7kg on the radiator support? This car was never in an accident and is all original.

We're at a loss. I'm probably going to throw an evaporator along with the new condenser at it just to verify if it's a partial blockage or not on the original evap, but seriously contemplating selling this car and getting something else.. Why when we add the proper amount of refrigerant does this keep happening? Thank god for FCP's lifetime warranty or I'd be like $2k+ in the hole on this issue at this point (I still have to pay for labor each time too obviously). Way more than the car is even worth in my area.

Pressures were still wildly all over the place too. Confirmed the climate doors are all opening properly and air is flowing as before. Again cabin filter was replaced last summer so it's not clogged but we even verified anyway. Coils on the evap are clean(ish) for it's age and was working perfectly fine prior to any work being done.

If anyone has any advise before I just push this car into a lake, I'd appreciate it..

EDIT: And to clarify on the above. They did measure the temps coming out of the vents as well. When I say passengers side gets cold, I mean it was blowing 40F out of the vent and 65-70F out of the drivers side. What's even weirder, the vent by the passengers door would get COLDER than the passengers vent in the center console by about 5-10F.

Cycle it to full hot and back but the same thing happens (and boy does it get hot when it's on full heat..). And another reminder, full AC/climate control system was working perfectly fine for nearly 10 years before any work was done to this car, so I'm highly skeptical that it's a bad sensor, blend door, motors, etc. I want to point to a partial blockage in the evaporator but I'm not a professional either.

If anyone knows of a good Volvo specialist in the North Eastern Pennsylvania area, I'd be more than happy to get another set of eyes on it. But I do not trust the stealerships around here to take it to them. I could try another independent shop that's local here but I think a Volvo specialist is in order at this point..

For the compressor to seize and the condenser to blow out there's too much liquid refrigerant or oil in the system or a near total blockage but this seems to be a less likely source of the problem because the system does function (cold air) at least for the passenger side. I'm beginning to suspect there's been too much added oil to the system with all the work that's been done. Too much oil could be from the oil charge in the new compressors compared to the amount in the replaced compressors (new and old compressors oil not drained and measured) or too much oil could have added as component replacement were made. Oil collects in the condenser, evaporator, receiver/drier and compressor so to get to a known oil capacity point the evaporator and condenser need to be flushed if not replaced and the oil in the compressor needs to be drained and measured. The lines should be flushed too, the receiver/drier, compressor and thermal expansion valve should not be flushed. It also seems like you have vent door problem but that's a much different problem than the AC system problem.
The compressor should be shut off if the system high side pressure gets too high but if there's a liquid "slugging" problem the compressor may seize or other the condenser may blow first before the pressure sensor transducer can detect a problem. Just speculating, I could be wrong about all this but there can only be so many problems that can cause the problems you're encountering.

So the high side pressure never gets very high, and I'm not sure what it hit when it popped today as we didn't have the gauges on. I was just sitting in the car trying to hold it around 1300rpm and see if that made the drivers side any cooler. Ran for amount a minute when the passengers side started getting warmer, then it popped and seized. We're not exactly sure where it popped yet, they have to take the bumper off to see where exactly still, so it could have blown an o-ring or something. But it definitely let go on the drivers side somewhere, because we could see the cloud of R134.. They're thinking the o-ring for the line on that side might have gave out.

I guess the physics in my head tells me that if there were too much oil though, the pressures would be very high no? When it had 1.8lbs in it and was blowing cold on passengers, low was around 45 and high was around 90 and today was 78F with quite a bit of humidity. Even the line leading to the evap was getting pretty cold and sweating. Maybe I just have bad luck and the condenser is blocked.

I will see if we can find exact oil capacities for each component like someone has previously provided for their V70 I believe it was, and see what he can do to drain the system and refill while I check around for any local Volvo specialists.

[soulvoid21]

At it again, lol.

Got a second diag from another independent shop. Confirmed not only should it be 700g, not 1000g of R134a but that the evap has a clog.

My regular mechanic is going to change this out for me, along with the evap temp sensor, heater core, and accompanying air seals. Heater core comes with new o-rings and I'm also including new clips for the heater core hoses. Assuming I'll just need 2? I'll see if I can find anything to confirm this.

Is there anything else we should consider changing while the dash is out? Obviously we don't want to take the dash out again.

[soulvoid21]

It was the evap.. replaced it along with the heater core, evap temp sensor and a few other things along with getting the right foam seals for the dash.

Been driving it for 2 days with no issues. AC gets down to 30F from the vent now.