strike300

My 71 year old aunt has a '95 Tercel and about 6 months ago, she told me that the Air Conditioning had quit working. She seemed to think that the problem was in the pushbutton switch on the dash. She said that for a while, she had to play around with the switch to get the compressor to kick on and if she left it alone it stayed on.

Then one day, it just wouldn't come on.

I took a look at it and when you push the button, the switch stays in like it's supposed to but the little green light doesn't light up and the compressor doesn't come on at all. The fan is working.

I pulled the switch out and went searching the junkyards to see if I could find another switch. Unfortunately, I never did find another '95 Tercel and the other models had different switches.

So now, my aunt broke her knee and can't operate the clutch and I brought the car up to my house. The A/C switch has been on my dresser for the past 6 months and I decided to plug the switch back in so it wouldn't get lost.

I tried to turn the A/C on and when I pushed the button, just for a few seconds, the green light lit up and I heard the compressor kick on. Then nothing. Just the fan blowing hot air (it's 85 degrees here). No compressor, no green light. I messed around with the controls and nothing would make it come back on.

I know there's a lot of circuitry in that little switch and it's not just a simple on/off deal. I tried jumping the terminals with a piece of wire to see if the compressor would kick on, but nothing happens. I suspect it's a lot more complicated than that. (I was going to try just putting a toggle switch on it.)

I might try hitting the junkyard again to see if I can find a switch, but does anyone have any idea if anything else may be causing the problem?

Thanks in advance.

strike300

Just an update, a local junkyard had a '94 Tercel, so I went and pulled the switch. It's the exact same switch, but it still does nothing.

So now what?