My A/C was working normally and then quit last summer. I've ignored it until now but decided to troubleshoot a little last night. The compressor clutch isn't kicking on when you press the AC button inside with the fan on. So I swapped the ignition/ac relays in the fuse panel under the hood, and it still wouldn't engage. I then jumped point 87 to point 30, and it finally engaged the compressor. But the AC wouldn't blow cold. I also sat inside and held it at a steady 2000 rpm's to try to help it get cold, to no avail. Any ideas/suggestions?

 

Sounds like it needs a charge, if its low or out of Freon the clutch wont engage.

 

But how would it run low or empty unless it had a leak? Would I be wasting money if I filled it just for it to leak back out?

 

Its pretty obvious oits low on Freon.... Which means air has gotten into the system.... I would have it professionally filled.... Theres no cold air due to the air pocket in the system..... air in the system = no cold air... The system needs to be vacuumed down (0 air)... and then filled with the proper amounts of oil Freon mix.

 

Most likely leaked out somewhere, take it to a shop for a servicing and they'll usually put Freon in with a dye in it to try and help locate a leak. Also depends on the size of the leak, it could run for a day, week, month. Who knows.

 

Ok thanks guys. I'll take it and get it vac'd/filled/checked for leaks. Thanks for the advice!

 

To add, now that you know the compressor does work, don't force it to run. The system has a way to prevent the compressor from running if it's low on freon.

Odds will probably be that the condenser is bad. But have a professional go over it to be sure. If the condenser is bad, it's an easy change (did it on my Monte this year).

 

Thanks for the tip on the condenser also, maniac. Is there a way to check any of these things without having to pressure test, leak test, or fill it? I'm a pretty good mechanic it's just the only things I have little to no experience with are A/C systems, and the insides of automatic tranny's, lol.

 

I wish I knew of a way. I had to work with a friend of mine who is a GM mechanic and he injected dye in the system on my Monte. After he found the condenser to be bad, when I changed it, I found a large corner of it covered in "gunk" (for lack of better terms), he suspects that gunk was a result of all the oils in the system blowing out.