A/C Help
 

When my girlfriend bought her 2.2 Ecotec Alero, the A/C wasn't functioning. After the dealer recharged it, it worked for about a week. Right before it stopped working, when she would put on her A/C, it would make an unusual noise. When it stopped working we never bothered to investigate the issue.

Recently we've been trying to get around to fixing it. What I've noticed is that her A/C compressor doesn't activate and the relay doesn't click when she presses the A/C button. I've swapped out the relay, the diode and checked the fuse and I got her try it again.. Still nothing. I've noticed that there's an A/C pressure sensor and I'm thinking that since it may be detecting that there's no pressure, the system won't activate the compressor because there's no refrigerant in the system.. Can anyone confirm that this is the reason why the compressor refuses to activate?

As far as I know if your out of refrigerant, the compressor wont activate. At least I know mine did when it ran out.

On my Alero 2000 3.4L the compressor will still activate when the A/C is not blowing cold air, but my girlfriend's 2004 2.2 won't. I wonder if mine is still somewhat still pressurized and the sensor allows it to activate, but my girlfriends might be too low on pressure so it may not want to kick in. I'll have to hook a pressure gauge on it and check it out I suppose.

Alright then I was correct.... The A/C system will not engage without pressure because it can cause damage to the system if there is not enough pressure. Mine must somehow have enough pressure to engage which is why I noticed the difference.

It was a stupid idea on GM's part to not indicate some how to the driver that the A/C system can't engage because of low pressure.. the A/C LED on the climate control still turns on as if everything's OK which is just stupid. Some indication on the instrument panel would be cool too, but I guess customers would bitch if they had a light on their dash for something that isn't vital to the operation of the vehicle. Plus it forces them to come into the dealership for a $50+ diagnostic check as well.

Nobody else does this either.


You have a leak. Good luck finding it! I have a car (not Alero) that has a A/C leak that I can't find (I'm guessing compressor shaft seal). The r134a leaks out in 3 days, but the car is 17 and has over 200K miles on it.

Fair enough, but if there's already an existing pressure sensor system, why not communicate to the driver that there's an issue. They could have even made it so basic so that when the user presses the A/C button, just make the A/C indication LED not illuminate to indicate an issue. That LED illuminating when the A/C button is pressed, indicates to me that all A/C systems are OK and it should be blowing cold air. That's all I'm saying.

I'm assuming the dealer just added refrigerant without using any sealer so hopefully after using some RedTek ProSeal, it'll be fine. As I said before, it worked for a whole week after being recharged so I'm hoping the leak is very small and can be repaired with the ProSeal.

Hopefully yours isnt like mine. Ive got a leak in the front condenser(?) and possibly from the compressor.

if you take it to a decent repair shop, they can do a dye test. mine was leaking right at the refrigerant filler valve above the radiator. the mechanic said its a common place to leak especially after a refill.

Let me know if this works, but if it's leaking out in a week, sealer isn't going to work. You have to replace something.

Well I had my buddy recharge both my girlfriend's A/C and mine, and we used the ProSeal stuff to begin with for each car. It's only been the second day for me and it's working great.

When he added just the proseal stuff to the system, it immediately started getting cooler in my car. I'm hoping the proseal does the trick and both of our A/Cs lasts atleast the entire summer.. I also hope that nothing has to replaced because I'm not even gonna bother with it.

http://www.fm-distributing.com/proseal.html

Interesting product, but on the car of mine in question, I suspect that the leak is at the compressor shaft seal. That's mostly because I can't find any leaks anyplace else and can't check that spot without removing the compressor clutch (and most likely the compressor). That and the > 208K miles on it.

Maybe this is a better link (gets good reviews on Amazon):
http://www.amazon.com/Cliplight-Manu.../dp/B0002NYBC8

I am not sure that I would even use this unless I thought that the problem was in the evaporator (the part inside the dash). In your case did you make any attempt to find the location of the leak?

On of the Amazon reviews is interesting in that they used this product to actually find the leak:

Add my story to the list of successes!!! I tried finding a leak but could not locate it. After installing the leak sealant and while idling the engine I finally found the leak. It was at a housing weld on a tube going into the A/C condenser. You could not see it without taking off the bumper shroud on the 2001 Ford Escape.

While I watched the leak hiss and bubble courtesy of the bright green leak detector dye, it started to slow down and stop. Within 5 minutes it had stopped. The sealant had been in the system for about 20 minutes by then.

When did having air conditioning in Canada become so important? I see them fixing it on Holmes on Homes all the time and have been wondering.

I have not made any attempt to find the leak yet. Unfortunately my girlfriend called and told me it all most likely leaked out because she isn't getting any A/C anymore.. Looks like the ProSeal stuff didn't help. I'm going to buy a can of the dye and try to see if I can find that bastard of a leak where ever it is. I was hoping that I could get away with trying to seal it and forget about it, but it didn't work so I'll actually have to try to figure our wherever it's leaking out from..

As for when it became important to have AC in Canada... LOL you're joking right? Right now in my area its 32 degrees Celsius (90 deg Fahrenheit).. It's hot now I can just can't stand it. I'm glad the A/C in my car is still working after the recharge, but who knows for how long.

My car idles really rough when my a/c is on when the car is in drive or reverse does anyone know why?

The AC compressor puts an extra load on the engine when the clutch is engaged. It could be the compressor is binding up a bit...hard to tell without seeing it in person but if that's the case the compressor is going bad.