A/C problem on sable 94

[analyzer]

Hi,

I'm new in tis forum and I love it already. It gives me so much information... wow.
But now I have a question. The waterpump on my Mercury Sable 94 broke like two weeks ago and I changed it. After that the engine coolant was really dirty and I cleaned it out a little. First couple of days everything worked fine but now the A/C doesn't work good anymore... it doesn't get really cold. And the engine coolant is really dirty again.
So I have two questions. Is there any connection between the dirty engine coolant and the A/C???
And the second questions is... how do I clean out the engine cooling system to keep the coolant clean???

Thank you so much for your help,

Analyzer

[GTP Dad]

First of all the two systems are totally separate. There should be no connection between the AC and the dirty coolant. Although if the fans are not working they will not pull air through the condensor to keep the AC running efficiently. As far as keeping the coolant clean you need to flush the entire system first. But I have a question, What do you mean by dirty? Is it just weak looking or do you actually see dirt in the system. If it is weak looking then drain about half of the fluid from the system and refill with a clean mixture of water and antifreeze. If the antifreeze looks oily you need to find the source. You could have a leak in the transmission cooler that is allowing trans fluid into the coolant. If this is the case get it checked immediately by a mechanic as you will ruin the tranny if not corrected. If you really want to flush the system make sure to drain everything from the radiator and the engine block too. A good idea is to buy a bottle of radiator flush and remove a heater hose. Connect a hose to the heater hose and flush the system in reverse. You may need to remove the thermostat in order to totally flush the system. Or take it to a shop where they can clean the system without pulling the car apart. If you decide to do this yourself, make sure you catch all the old antifreeze and dispose of it properly. Once all the old antifreeze has been removed flush the sytem with water and drain again. Then fill with a 50/50 mixture of antifreeze and water. I may have forgotten a step, good luck!

[GTP Dad]

I did forget one thing. You may need to add freon to the AC system. Sometimes it leaks out and that will also cause the AC not to work properly. You can buy a recharge kit fairly inexpensively but make sure to check the system for proper pressure before adding. Too much is as bad as too little. There is a new tool on the market that costs about $20 that will help you check the pressure and will tell you if you need to add freon. You can get it at advance or autozone. Make sure you connect it to the low pressure side of the system not the high pressure port. The fitting will not allow you to do this but thought I'd give you a heads up anyway.

[analyzer]

The water is just weak looking... no signs of oil. I wanna clean up the whole engine cooling system and bought already the cleaner fluid from Prestone. But now I have a problem... I cannot locate the radiator drain plug on my Mercury Sable 94. Can somebody help me and tell me where it is located. I hope I am be able to do that by myself...
About the A/C I think it is easier to let a professional check on that. Hoefully it just needs a little refill and is nothing serious.

Thanks for your fast answer. And thanks for the good luck... I will need it. Andreas

[Larry in CA]

Your radiator drain is on the lower inside almost straight down from the upper radiator hose. It isn't hard to find.

Larry

[jian]

I have 97 Mercury Sable having simuler problem of coolant system. One is the overheat. I reflushed the coolant couple times. Till I removed the sumerstart, looks the over heat problem is gone. At the same time, I found the A/C did not work. I am also wonder they are some relationship. Before there was over heat problem, the A/C is OK. Since the weather is not hot, I did not pay any attention on the A/C. Till recentely I found the A/C totally did not work. I bought a set of A/C kit. But no adapters can fit my mercury sable's A/C connector. Is some professional person can help me? I will be very appreciated. Could you send me an e-mail? Thanks.

[coolbreeze48]

If you had to remove the thermostat to keep the car from overheating, you didn't solve the problem, you just worked around it and it will probably be back to haunt you. Maybe all you needed was a new thermostat? As for the A/C, it uses 134a refrigerate and you will have to have the right connector to be able to hook up to it. The old R-12 connectors will not work. If the A/C doesn't work at all, it could be several problems, a bad compressor, low or no refrigerate charge, bad compressor clutch, bad pressure switch, etc, etc. Need more information, not working at all just isn't enough. If the A/C system has NO refrigerate in it at all, you will need to pull a vacuum on the system BEFORE adding any refrigerate to it to get all the air and moisture out of the system. If you don't do this and just add the refrigerate to it, it may still not cool at all, or cool a little, but if it cools any it won't be as it should be. The condenser coil for the A/C is located right next to the radiator, so if it is over heating and the fan can't remove the heat from the condenser coil it will effect the A/C.

[71man]

My compressor/clutch cratered this past weekend on my 1999 Mercury Sable. I started work on it today and found out why so many people bad-mouth these cars. The thing is almost impossible to remove with out practically taking the whole front end apart. Does anyone have any suggestions that make this task any more home mechanic friendly???

I am half done now, however...I have the unit finally out of the car....which took a good part of 5 hours to do. I have to finish tomorrow by putting the new one in and reassembling everything....which I do not believe is going to be as easy as taking it apart..........I had brought the car into a local Ford dealership for an estimate...they told me that it would cost between $1,200 to $1,500 to fix. SHEEZ! I told them I could not afford that, so I took it to an individual.....he told me $730, but he can't get to it for a few weeks. Here in Texas, a few weeks without AC in the car simply sucks. He also said he had never worked on a 99 Sable before.....I think, after experiencing this myself...he would have gone up on the price after one day.....WORD OF WARNING!!!! If you can afford it...pay the money to have it fixed. The engineers who designed this set-up should be beat...no doubt.

Long gone are the days of simple do-it-yourself auto AC repair, eh? Not to mention the fact that the last AC I replaced was in a 78 Olds Omega. Quick, easy, no problems. When it went out, I simply removed the one belt that went to the compressor/clutch/pulley, and had no problems driving until I could get to it to replace it. This whole single serpantine belt idea is for the birds. Just a personal thought y'all