AC blowing warm air

Tinovolpe · 09-30-2015, 06:58 PM

Hey everyone. 2001 DOHC AC all of a sudden started blowing warm air when on max AC, not regular cabin air but warm air as if it is on heater mode. It has automatic climate control. I checked the charge and low side is 30psi and high side about 130 psi. Pipes in engine bay are sweating so cooling is occuring. The compressor cycles once or twice when I first turn the car on then just runs continuously. I put some charge in but it didn't do anything so I didn't want to overcharge it. I was thinking maybe stuck blend door but how would I check for that. Any ideas??
Thanks

brcidd · 09-30-2015, 07:16 PM

Easiest way to prove/disprove a temp door issue is to eliminate the source of the heat, by pinching off the heater hose temporarily. If no hot water, no heat, if air temp returns to cool air, then the temp door is stuck in heat position. Then you have to go under dash and see if actuator is working, or there is a broken temp door axle.

Tinovolpe · 10-01-2015, 07:56 AM

I'll try that. I definitely think the AC is fine as the lines under the hood are ice cold and it's leaving a puddle of condensate under the car. Not sure why the clutch run continuously though since it typically cycles on and off.
At any rate I read in another forum about resetting the climate control system by pressing off and floor at the same time followed by the auto button within 2 seconds. I'm supposed to get a 888 code if everything is ok. Unfortunately all I get is thre dashes ---. I can hear the doors opening and closing when I do it though. Will have to dig in a little deeper this weekend.

Tinovolpe · 06-03-2016, 11:02 AM

Well another successful if painful and curse filled repair. What else is new. I did change the blend door actuator. Let this be a warning though. Unlike what the you tube videos show you, if you have electronic climate control this actuator is buried behind the radio/climate control center cluster and is an absolute bitch to get to. The brilliant designers at Ford hid one of the bolts behind a big plastic wiring harness that you have to unbolt to get at it and to doo that you have to get the glove box door out of the way. All this while lying upside down on your back in the passenger seat. If you have back problems you may not want to do this job. And after all this the actuator still didn't work. I was fit to be tied until I did some research and figured out how to read codes off the cluster and sure enough there was a code for the blend door. When I cleared it the door worked and now I have AC. There was also a code for a bad sunload sensor but that didn't seem to effect the operation of the blend door so I'm not going to worry about it. What is that stupid thing for anyway?
So thanks everyone for all your feedback and tips.

Dlcfordtaurus · 07-25-2016, 02:25 PM

I have a 2007 Taurus that blows hot air when a/c is on when car warms up. I have drained freon twice and refilled. Seems to work when overfilled and pressure very high but it only works for a few seconds at a time because the compressor kicks on and off at brief intervals. Any way to reset and obtain diagnostic codes? Any suggestions?

Tinovolpe · 07-25-2016, 02:45 PM

When your AC is blowing hot air how are the refrigerant lines under the hood? Are they cold to the touch or sweating. If so then you probably have a blend door issue. if the lines are warm and not getting cold then you have an AC system issue and time to do some detective work.

shorod · 07-25-2016, 09:56 PM

Well, the high pressure line will get hot and the low pressure cold when the system is properly charged and working. The quick cycling can happen if the system is undercharged as well as if it's overcharged. And when using the little 12 oz or so cans, it can be easy to get the fill amount off (some cans have oil added, etc.).

When you say you have "drained freon twice and refilled" was this done by a shop with the proper equipment to evacuate the system or was it literally releasing the gas and filling back up? If a vacuum was not pulled on the system it's difficult to know if you really got the system properly charged or if there might be moisture in the system that is reducing the effectiveness of the system. There will be no diagnostic codes for any of these things.

If you HVAC system is the electronic controls, there is a way to check that system for codes related to the various doors, but if it is the manual knob setup, there's no real diagnostics for that.

-Rod

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