93 PA air conditioning problem

93 Park Avenue...AC was working wonderfully...cooling very well, no flashing lights on climate control panel, no apparent problems. (Yes, it has dual zone) A few days ago, the AC would come on, work for approximately five minutes, then stop. The last time it came on, I used dual zone, but same story...worked about 5 minutes, and stopped. When it was working, and up until the time it stopped, the air was ice cold, so it doesn't seem like a low refrigerant issue...especially since the readout is not blinking on the dash, as I've been told will happen if freon gets low. Now, I can no longer get the AC to function, the compressor is not "kicking in". I know the dealer will rip me off to diagnose and repair this problem, and I don't want to spend a fortune on an older car such as this. Anyone have any ideas what the problem(s) could be here, and possible fixes?

fuse or relay?

Can you tell me where the relay is on the 93 Buick Park Ave. Ultra?

without putting a set of gauges on it it it hard to tell. the possibilities are:

low refrigerant
high pressure (possibly a blockage)
hvac controller
radiator fan
blend door problem (less likely since the compressor kicks off)

When you say it STOPPED, do you mean the fan stopped or the cold stopped? Were you getting no air or hot air?

When the problem first began, the AC compressor would "kick in", and would cool (very well, in fact) for 5 or 10 minutes. Then, it would stop cycling, and the unit would only blow warm air. Blower seems to be working fine. I am not getting any cooling effect whatsoever now, and visually checked to make sure that the compressor isn't "kicking in" when AC is turned on. The display on the dash controls is not blinking. Before the problem, AC was cooling very well, and even when it began only working for a short time when turned on, the air being blown was very cool. This leads me to think that this possibly isn't a refrigerant issue.

you said AC compressor would kick in and it would cool very well but then it would stop cycling, and the unit would only blow warm air.

The compressor would stop cycling? well then it could be a blockage causing the high pressure switch to turn the compressor off. or maybe the clutch is bad.

once again. without high and low pressures, its almost impossible to figure out.

I am having similar problems, however it seems to be very erratic. At the begining of the summer, if I cranked the car cold and set the AC to 60, everything worked fine unless I cut the car off, or raised the temp which would allow the compressor clutch to drop out. After that the compressor would not come back on until I let the car sit for several hours to completely cool down.

Then I noticed when I took a long trip that after an hour or so the compressor would come back on. It got gradually better and eventually straightened itself out. Runs fine for 3 months, then last week I had the alternator fail and the battery voltage dropped to around 8-9 volts before I caught it. The AC starts acting just as it had 3 months earlier. At first I figured the PCM was in a conservation mode, but after I replaced the alternator the issue is still there.

Today I am going to buy a set of gauges to help dignose the problem. Anyone know if there are any forums on this site for AC diagnostics?

Steve

I'll keep you posted on what I find.

heres a site that is very helpful:

http://www.aircondition.com/wwwboard/

my ac in my 92 PA was also perfectly cool, then stopped being cool. Blower is fine. For some reason econ light seems to be on. First mech replaced fuse and it worked for about 10 mins, then just blower again. Now I am told there is a hole in the compressor....$700 to replace.

My problem has been solved!!!! Turned out to be, after all this time, the connector to the low pressure switch needed cleaning. I was going to jump it out and noticed the compressor came on when I touched it. Used some tuner cleaner on it and has been working flawlessly for over two weeks.

Just goes to show that the simple, obvious and inexpensive things should be checked before spending money. I broke my own rule.

oh well......