wacked

My AC hasn't worked. It just blows ambient air temp air as if I only had it on fan. The compressor would cycle on and off and on and off every 5-7 seconds or so, then run for for about 3 seconds then shut off.. And just kept repeating this cycle as long as it was on.

So for $29.95, I Bought an AC charging kit that included a can of refrigerant along with a pressure gauge and a quick connect hose Almost identical to this:


I turned AC on full blast/maximum, Then I hooked the charging kit up. The nice thing is that the quick connect charging hose will only connect to the right port - the right port to charge is the top port on the bigger line - almost right above the shock tower on the passenger side (on a 2001 limited XJ).

Once I hooked it up and the compressor would repeat its quick on and off cycles. When the compressor would run - the pressure would drop to nothing. Then the pressure would raise up (just not very far) when it cycled off. So i squeezed the trigger and charged it.. and after a while of charging it, I noticed the compressor would stay on for a few seconds longer each time it cycled until it finally stayed on without going off. Took the whole can in and pressure was steady then at about 45-50 pounds which was normal for the ambient temp per instructions.

So far so good, it now blows ICE cold air.. Hopefully it hold out for the rest of the summer or longer. In any case, the refrigerant escaped somehow at some point - perhaps it's because it wasn't ran a few times during cold months and the seals shrunk, who knows. But hopefully this might help some people with similar problems - a constantly cycling AC compressor. However, a constantly cycling compressor may also indicate an over-charged or blocked line in the system. So I sure don't recommend anything but extreme caution or a professional.





<<

victorlanda

thank's for posting the info, that's a pretty common symptom of low refrigerant because there's a low refrigerant sensor that will not allow the compressor to stay on if there's low refrigerant which cause 5 to 15 seconds cycles.
the first time it happened to my xj i did the same and it's still ice cold.