Temperature rises and car stalls when A/C is on.

[zimgator]

My Ford Taurus '98 jerks and stalls when A/C is on. First the temperature rises and then the car jerks and stalls especially at traffic lights. The problem started when I was driving from Tennessee to Florida and the air-con couldnt blow as cold as it was a couple of hours back. The A/C was as good as dead even though the fan was blowing. I also felt that the power was also low when I was accelerating.

I did stop at a gas station and the coolant from the reservoir container spilled out.

I just bought the car, it has 93 000 miles. It has had an oil change and oil filter change. Other than that I havent had it serviced for anything else. Also when I am accelerating I feel (in my foot) and hear a subtle crackling sound. Please help me. How expensive will be the repairs?

[Huney1]

Overheating is the number one cause of blown headgaskets so you need to get it repaired immediately. Meantime, DO NOT run the AC, put the windows down and grin and bear it.

As to what is wrong; do you have a check engine light that comes on? If it overheats it could start jerking and spark knocking from the excessive heat, but I hope that is not the case. There are a number of things that could cause the jerking and sputtering so give us some more info to work with. How many miles on it, is the engine coolant clean and rust free, are the thermostat and coolant cap good, when is the last time you changed the fuel filter and a general run down on how it has been maintained and driving conditions.

Again I caution you about driving it overheating because what could be a relatively inexpensive repair could turn into a VERY expensive repair of blown head gasket and/or a cracked head. Never, ever take the cap off a hot engines cooling system because you could be severely burned.

[zimgator]

Originally Posted by Huney1

Overheating is the number one cause of blown headgaskets so you need to get it repaired immediately. Meantime, DO NOT run the AC, put the windows down and grin and bear it.

As to what is wrong; do you have a check engine light that comes on? If it overheats it could start jerking and spark knocking from the excessive heat, but I hope that is not the case. There are a number of things that could cause the jerking and sputtering so give us some more info to work with. How many miles on it, is the engine coolant clean and rust free, are the thermostat and coolant cap good, when is the last time you changed the fuel filter and a general run down on how it has been maintained and driving conditions.

Again I caution you about driving it overheating because what could be a relatively inexpensive repair could turn into a VERY expensive repair of blown head gasket and/or a cracked head. Never, ever take the cap off a hot engines cooling system because you could be severely burned.

Thanks Huney1 for the reply.

The problem started when I was driving from Tennessee to Florida and the air-con couldnt blow as cold as it was a couple of hours back. The A/C was as good as dead even though the fan was blowing. I also felt that the power was also low when I was accelerating.

I did stop at a gas station and the coolant from the reservoir container spilled out.

I just bought the car, it has 93 000 miles. It has had an oil change and oil filter change. Other than that I havent had it serviced for anything else. Also when I am accelerating I feel (in my foot) and hear a subtle crackling sound. I am not very familiar with cars. If you need any other information please let me know and I will try to answer them

[Huney1]

"The A/C was as good as dead even though the fan was blowing." The freon refigerant could be low, the compressor could have went out or the compressor clutch is burnt out or not engaging. But those would have nothing to do with it running hot.

"I did stop at a gas station and the coolant from the reservoir container spilled out." When you stop the engine temp initially goes up then goes back down as it cools off and boiling over tells me the cap might not be good because it should be holding 16 lbs of pressure. Caps are cheap and can be had at most parts stores so throw the old one away and get a new one.

"just bought the car, it has 93 000 miles. It has had an oil change and oil filter change. Other than that I havent had it serviced for anything else." Lot's of other things that need care and service so break out the owners manual and bring the maintenance schedule up to date. Transmissions on Tauri should have the fluid flushed at 90K miles and take good care of the tranny because they are expensive to rebuild. A flush will run around a hundred bucks where a rebuild is like $1500., . . . so go figure. DUH?

Having a neighborhood cook out so I have to go but scroll down to Causes Of Overheating and read the info.
http://www.aa1car.com/library/overheat.htm

Are the fans in front of the radiator coming on?
If the engine overheats while at a stop or idle only:
Most front wheel drive cars use an electric cooling fan motor located in front or behind the radiator. The function of the cooling fan is to improve airflow across the radiator at stops and low speeds. The fan is controlled by sensors that regulate the engine temperature and additional load that might be placed on the engine.

The air conditioning compressor will require the cooling fan to operate at idle as long as the compressor is on. A quick way to check the cooling fan operation is to turn on the air conditioner. The cooling fan should come on with the air conditioner compressor. Some cars will have two electric fans, one is for the radiator and the other is the air conditioner condenser fan. Usually the radiator fan is closer to the middle of the radiator. The radiator fan is responsible for engine cooling, and the condenser fan is responsible for increasing air conditioning efficiency at idle and low speed.

If your vehicle does not have an electric cooling fan on the radiator it will have a belt driven fan blade and fan clutch. This fan should be pulling a large amount of warm to hot air across the radiator onto the engine. What you want to determine with either fan situation is that there is ample airflow across the radiator at idle. The radiator is the primary heat exchange for the engine, and airflow is crucial.

[shorod]

Your A/C compressor may be partially seized, loading the engine excessively causing the engine to stall and the overworked engine to heat up more than usual. You may also have a cooling fan that is not working behind the radiator, contributing to the hot condition. If the cooling fan is not working, then the coolant will not be cooled as effectively and A/C system pressures may get too high, causing the system to turn off and hence the non-cool air in the cabin. The radiator cooling fan should run when the A/C is turned on.

-Rod

[zimgator]

Ok thanks. I took the car to the mechanic today and he said that he couldnt see anything wrong with the car. The problem is the car doesnt stall all the time. It does this when its very hot usually in the afternoon (Im in Florida). The mech said I should bring back the car on a day when it is stalling and the temperature is rising at the switching on of the A/C.