How To: A/C & Recirculation intermittant/blinking

[BeatnikTermite]

Originally Posted by PrimeWoman

BeatnikTermite....THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!
Apparently the problem with my a/c is not an unfamiliar one and thank goodness to the powers that be for Google. I took my car to a local shop to diagnose the problem. I dealt with the owner. He "suggested" that I have the entire system replaced to a tune of almost $1500 (provided me with a detailed estimate as he tried to confound me with tradespeak). This cost me $25. I took it to another shop, the mgr told me he ran the a/c for 30 min and the problem I described did not surface, therefore he could not give me any estimate for repair, not knowing what the problem was. This cost me $0. It occurred to me to give Google a try, keyed in malibu+a-c+problem, which brought me to this forum, and low and behold, found my problem described to a T. It makes me boiling mad to have anybody attempt to hose me...and especially automotive repair shops. Ain't my first rodeo, and have had encounters with unscrupulous sorts....what really burns my butt is those who think that because my chromosomes are XX, that I am an airheaded woman and an easy target.
The pdf page is step-by-step w/ pictures too. Love that. I copied and pasted the forum page and pdf. I am in the process of contacting 8 on your side consumer reporter. If they decide not to investigate, I will march into that shop on a busy Monday morning, with documents in hand and politely, calmly, read the owner the riot act, with both barrels loaded. Not only will the owner find out that I won't subscribe to his brand of "service", but will in return, "suggest" he learn to Google, look up the meaning of INTEGRITY, and review a course on business ethics, but the customers waiting to be served will get some insight as to how they operate there. The ultimate irony? A tagline on their letterhead that reads: Yesterday's integrity, todays technology. --Respectfully and humbly--PW

No problem. I am glad you could use this. I am just here to help, and hopefully, be helpful.

[BeatnikTermite]

Bump.

This has been brought up several times again recently.

[gapboi210]

Just wanted to post an update. I fixed mine as stated in my last post in May of 2005 it is almost a year now March 2006, and it still works perfectly. If it does it agian I will just do the simple fix again.

[ShadeTreeBill]

BT:

Ditto to that! About two years ago I started doing my own work on my cars. I had to. I would have gone postal on the next mechanic who left 'spare bolts' on my battery; who left the bottom radiatior hose clamp loose after spending week rebuilding my cooling system; who left me with loose valve cover bolts after charging me $200 to replace the VC gaskets; who replaced my radiator, and sent me out of the shop with a bad waterpump; etc. All real things that happened.

Do not get me wrong. Some of my best friends are mechanics. I have the greatest respect for guys who do the right thing and those guys earn every penny of what they charge.

Enough of the soapbox.

Thanks for posting this "how to". My wife will think I am a genius when I fix her AC problem. Thanks for making me look good: in advance.

2002 Malibu

[tractorboy]

The A/C light on the control head would flicker then go off. We would have to keep punching the a/c button to get it to stay on. I went to a salvage yard and removed the control head from a wrecked malibu. The control head worked for a while. I will try the cleaning. The good part is I now have a spare unit that I can do the cleaning to and swap out with the one that is presently in the car.

[ShadeTreeBill]

I did mine the other day, it took about an hour start to finish. We are thrilled with the result. I thought I had inherited a really nasty electrical problem, but who new it could be so simple to fix. The Forum Rules!

It started out that he Recirc mode just would not hold, it would revert to Fresh Air mode pretty quickly, and of course the AC just doesn't cool as well in that mode. Here in the Deep South its a real issue if you are not getting every bit you can out of that AC.

The day I started to do the work, I noticed the AC light was flickering and would go off. The compressor clutch would snap in and out. Couldn't be a good thing.

All is well now. Thanks Again!

[steamingheap]

Thank you very much - I tried this fix about a month ago, and the A/C has been working great since then. We just sucked it up and put the windows down last summer as the A/C would only stay on for about 20 seconds at a time.

From start to finish, it took about an hour and it cost me nothing. Wish I had seen this last July...

[IOWABOB]

I fixed mine today ,using this info-- thanks

[kevinpublic]

I did this as well. It works like a charm now. Considering how stinking hot it is out right now, this is a real blessing... especially since it's a FREE fix! Thanks!!!!!

[ShadeTreeBill]

I did this fix about three months ago and thought I was good to go. However, it has started to act up again. Not nearly as bad as before though. I think it is mainly the fan switch that causes this. I found on a long trip in June that if I switched fan speeds a lot, it would cause the AC to turn off, or the recirc to drop back to fresh air mode.....

For now we are leaving the fan on 5 (max speed) and the AC rarely drops out. We still see occasional drop outs of the recirculation mode. I will probably try cleaning it again, it's a lot better than forking over $200 to GM for the control head....

They really should own up to this failure like they have the bad Hazard switch.

Good luck to all! Thanks Too!

"My other car is a 02 Malibu"

[partimecarguy]

You Are Wrong The Recirc Mode Can Only Be Used In The A/c Mode

[johnschmitt]

recirc mode can be used in every setting with the ac on or off except defrost and defrost/ floor. Or at least I do it all the time and the car seems to let me.

[slls]

Originally Posted by johnschmitt

recirc mode can be used in every setting with the ac on or off except defrost and defrost/ floor. Or at least I do it all the time and the car seems to let me.

That is true except, the A/C will always be on when in recir mode, by default.
My 04 Malibu Z model is setup that way.

[dewangxp]

Originally Posted by johnschmitt

recirc mode can be used in every setting with the ac on or off except defrost and defrost/ floor. Or at least I do it all the time and the car seems to let me.

Same on my 2000 Malibu

[roys29]

I knew if I searched long enough I would find the fix for this problem, and here it is! After years of struggling with this problem on my wife's '99 Malibu, I finally fixed it thanks to this forum. Let me add a couple of notes:

• Step 1 is to remove the trim bezel from around the radio and control head. I covered a flat-blade screwdriver with masking tape and used it to pry off the bezel. It snaps in place in four places.
• When removing the control head from the dash, be sure to pull it straight out. There are two plastic alignment pins on the rear of the head which can snap if you pull it out at an angle.
• The face plate is held onto the plastic control head frame by 4 barbed catches. Use a small flat-blade screwdriver to lift the frame away from the barb to release it.
• The PCB is also held in place with four barbed catches. Gently push the barb to the edge of the PCB to release it.
• My PCB was so dirty that alcohol wouldn’t clean it, so I used an old trick I learned when fixing large-scale mainframe computers. I used a pencil eraser to clean the brushes and PCB. I rubbed the PCB fairly briskly and a dark coating came off of the etch. However, I was very gentle with the brushes since they are very delicate. I rubbed them with the pencil eraser just enough to make them shiny.

So now my wife's car is working correctly and I'm the hero.