So I recharged my a/c today in my 98 XJ with the a/c pro recharge kit. A/c blew cold and great. Unfortunately we overheated again while sitting in the Jeep for my lunch break. I turned off the Jeep and let her cool down a bit then drove the mile back to work.

Right after I pulled in and parked I heard/felt this weird kick, and then "pppssssststststtttttttt" like a busted hose. Also lots of steam/smoke coming from under the hood. Seriously sounded like something exploded.


I popped the hood, and didn't really see anything weird, but there is a small hose from the firewall (I am assuming it is from the heater core, a lil 90 degree 6" hose) which looks like it expelled some coolant.

The overflow bottle was almost to the top too.

I haven't had overheating issues in a couple weeks, and I am wondering if it has something to do with recharging the a/c.

Is there anything anyone can think of off top of their heads which would give me the statement problem?

Thanks guys.

 

Have u done any cooling system maintenance?

 

Most everything in cooling system had been replaced in the past 6 weeks. Clutch, radiator, coolant sensor, water pump, thermostat. Plus I spent 6 hours flushing the system. I also flushed out the heater core separately.

 

If u have a leak, the cooling system is going to be low on coolant. Finish where u left off replacing stuff. Small leaks get bigger....fast.

 

I don't see any coolant leaking. The bottle shows it full.

Drove home from work this afternoon. No overheating, but sweet baby jesus it was a hot/miserable ride home. It was about 90 degrees and humid in Indiana today. Not to mention it was pouring rain on half of the drive, so I couldn't put my damn windows down. I was a swampy mess.

The A/C is completely dead now as far as I can tell. No cold air anymore, nor cool air. Just HOT air. I think it had hot air coming inside even with the Jeep off. (I made one stop on the way home and when I got in felt like hot air was radiating from the dash area)

Maybe the a/c blew up this afternoon? I am wondering if all the steam/smoke (I don't know what it was) I saw this afternoon was the refrigerant from the a/c evacuating? It is just strange to me that my a/c worked great after I recharged it during my lunch break and then 20 minutes later it blow all to ****.

This guy is becoming very disheartened with this Jeep since I just spent so much on the cooling system and brake overhaul for these problems to keep compiling.

 

Did the coolant leak above fix itself? Have u removed the rad cap, motor COLD, to check coolant level in the rad. Checking coolant level in the bottle only is not a good ides.....coolant level needs to be checked both in the rad and bottle, motor COLD.

 

Yeah, just checked radiator. It is full.

 

BTW, while I was out there I took a pic of the lil hose I was talking about earlier. I saw some pooling underneath it and behind it looked kind of wet. I was in a hurry to clock back in but that is pretty much what I saw when it exploded.

 

That is the a/c condensation drain hose.

 

Why yes, I think I can.

Lemme see if I can guess at a few things. The "coolant" you saw was green crap spewed all over the area between your A/C compressor and the firewall, right? When you went back later it had mostly evaporated away, leaving a greasy residue. And I'm also guessing the sound you heard involved a deep vibration (almost a grinding) coming from the front passenger side of the engine compartment, accompanied by one or more loud pops.

If those assumptions are true, here's my theory:

You have a leak in your AC system, and as refrigerant has leaked out, so has the compressor oil. When you recharged your system, you didn't put any additional compressor oil in, right? So the compressor was operating without enough oil. The compressor has a relief valve on the back of it that will spew nasty green crap everywhere when it locks up. What you heard was the compressor binding and relieving itself. What you saw in the engine bay was not coolant, but the liquid refrigerant the compressor spewed.

The bent pipe coming out of the firewall is the drain pipe for the evap core inside your dash. The green crap didn't come out of it. It's just in a coincidental location. Also coincidental is your overheating. Those two things are probably red herrings.

Believe it or not, despite the horrifying sound, the compressor may not be dead. I had one do that to me, so I quit using the air conditioner until I could get it into a shop for a mechanic to look at it. He evacuated the system, put a new charge with oil in it, and damned if the compressor didn't start right up and make cold.

It's a confusing thing to have happen. When mine spewed, I was standing there with the hood up, charging the AC system, so I got to see first hand where the crap was spewing from. Scared the bajeezus out of me. If I had been inside the car driving it, I wouldn't have had any idea WTF was going on under there.

At least that's my theory. Let's see if it turns out to be right.

 

extrashaky, I had the exact same experience. There was a pop, some spewing, and i saw the green greasy looking stuff. I was like WTF!!!?!?!?!?!?!?! (I was sitting inside at the time). You pretty much nailed it. My experience was exactly as you described.

I did not add oil, just the recharge. (Didn't know a/c had oil in it until today)

So do we just need oil, and a recharge? Is that something best left to the pros?

 

To be honest I don't really know. I would be tempted to try it myself, but I have a new-in-the-box Harbor Freight vacuum pump to pull a vacuum on the system and a set of gauges I barely know how to use. If I didn't have those, I would probably end up taking it to a mechanic I use sometimes who usually charges $135 for an A/C service but will count that toward an overhaul if it turns out it's needed. Sorry I can't be more help there, but at least you know what's going on.

There is another issue that needs to be addressed. From your original post:

This is unlikely to be related to your A/C issue, but it's a separate problem you really should take care of. Overheating while idling can indicate that your fan clutch is failing. Fortunately that's not a difficult or expensive fix, so I would definitely do that myself unless I just didn't have the time.

 

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Was aux fan running when idleing with Ac on ?

 

If aux fan was not operating head pressure could of went to high causing this issue also.