960 Air-Con... Tell me its not dead again

Hi.

I probably posted this last year (and maybe the year before... because every
April we're greeted with a non-functional A/C in our 960)

Apparantly our A/C isn't working (I haven't looked into it too much yet, was
busy working on my Golf today) - last year a pipe was replaced, we were told
it's not leaking anywhere anymore, and we should be good to go... The year
before they threw in leak stop and we were good for a year... Leak was too
bad last year.

Now it was only 17C today, and we asked the car for 21C (its a black
interior... it was probably 30C in there)

Now the fan just came on really strong on Auto, and with even more vigor
when the AC switch was pushed (and the recycled air kicked on) but the ice
cold air never came on.... Is the car just not allowing the A/C to come on
because the outside air is cool enough, or is the system out of coolant
again (I haven't checked to see if the A/C clutch was kicking on and off,
but I couldn't hear it cycling with the hood closed).

 

It's dead again, probably the refrigerant has leaked out. Functioning
A/C will come back on above 5°C, cooler if the interior is heated up on
a sunny day.

To check, turn on the A/C, and if the clutch is not turning (and I'll
bet it isn't), remove the electrical connector from the switch on the
receiver-drier and short the wires together (don't damage the
terminals). If the clutch engages, then the only other possibility is
the switch is defective (very unlikely).

This is the problem with A/C on older cars - you have a bunch of
components, all at the end of their design life, failing one after
another.

--
Mike F.
Thornhill (near Toronto), Ont.

Replace tt with t (twice!) and remove parentheses to email me directly.
(But I check the newsgroup more often than this email address.)

 

Damn... Wonder what the damage would be to do the whole system with new
parts (we like A/C in the car... not willing to part with it easily).