What the heck did I do to my AC?

shawnwhipple · **Joined:** Wed Aug 20, 2003 6:28 pm **Posts:** 603

Since cartalk is going off the air soon, I thought I would throw out a puzzler. The only problem is I don't actually know the answer.

Here goes. At the Danville event this last weekend my AC was working on the way too the event, it was working while I was in grid awaiting my first run. I'm 99% sure I turned it off before I made any runs and then left it off. Didn't pay it much attention after that. About 20 minutes after running I drove into Danville to pick up lunch it wouldn't work at all. Drove around for awhile and it just blew hotter and hotter. Tried turned the car off, no fix. Cycled the AC on and off no help. When you turned it on you could see the RPM's dip a little when the compressor engaged but still no AC. I did a quick inspection under the hood and didn't see any obvious cause. I consigned myself to a hot ride home and finished up the rest of the day. However when I packed up the car and started it up joy of joys the AC is working again. So what gives?

Ryan Holton · **Posted:** Tue Jun 26, 2012 7:43 am

Fans kicking on/off?

JamesShort · **Posted:** Tue Jun 26, 2012 7:57 am

Frozen evaporator coil?

BretLuter · **Posted:** Tue Jun 26, 2012 9:30 am

JamesShort wrote:

Frozen evaporator coil?

This is what I was thinking. Something froze up and it just took some time for it to thaw out, then it worked again.

You said you were 99% sure you turned it off before making any runs- but maybe you did leave it on and somehow the hard running caused it to freeze up (???).

That being said, AFAIK if an AC system is freezing up, there's something causing it- I think one common cause is low (or high) freon charge.

shawnwhipple · **Joined:** Wed Aug 20, 2003 6:28 pm **Posts:** 603

Quote:

You said you were 99% sure you turned it off before making any runs- but maybe you did leave it on and somehow the hard running caused it to freeze up (???).

That's probably the most likely theory. I'll have to keep an eye on it and see if it has more problems down the road.

Michael Westerfield · **Posted:** Tue Jun 26, 2012 11:17 am

What about the mixer? Sometimes they get stuck and the lever that moves gets stuck. This seems unlikely since you weren't changing it from hot to cool, but it's usually easy to check.

Donnie Barnes · **Posted:** Sat Jun 30, 2012 8:25 pm

shawnwhipple wrote:

Quote:

You said you were 99% sure you turned it off before making any runs- but maybe you did leave it on and somehow the hard running caused it to freeze up (???).

That's probably the most likely theory. I'll have to keep an eye on it and see if it has more problems down the road.

But shouldn't WOT turn the compressor off anyway? Which I'd think would mean it wouldn't freeze anything up. But then again, maybe Shawn is a candy-ass now and wasn't using WOT?

--Donnie

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What the heck did I do to my AC?

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