03 Classic, replaced radiator & now a/c is out.

[JoeTheShmoe]

I have an '03 PT Cruiser. So my radiator broke, literally broke and and gushed all my coolant out in a pharmacy parking lot. So I had my wife pull me home. Next day I got to workin on it. He only thing I remember disconnecting was the radiator fan. Pulled it out, and pulled out the. Radiator without bothering anything else. So I put the new one in, dropped the fan I to place and reconnected the wires for it. So I go to turn it in on and the radiator fix goes well but now my ad won't kick on! The compressor won't even click on! What the heck? It worked great before I replaced the radiator! My a/c mechanic said he thinks something is disconnected. Told me to check that the compressor is plugged in. So I did and it seems fine. Then he told me to check that the low....or is it the high....pressure line has the connector plugged in all the way. Please help. I have no idea which one of the lines is low and which one is high or what connector he might be talking about.

[shorod]

There may be a connector to a sensor on the A/C condenser. I'm not familiar with the PT itself to tell you where such a connector resides, if at all though. The condenser is the finned "radiator" that is installed between the grill and the radiator. In the process of removing the radiator you may have snagged the wiring to the condenser.

-Rod

[JoeTheShmoe]

That's what I was thinking but I don't remember knocking the condenser around when I unscrewed it from the radaitor bracket. I will check it though because I know I didn't snag any wires but my father in law insisted in helping me. So he was under the car "aiding" with the process. Maybe he messed it up. I'll take a look when I get home. How many wires should the connector have?

[shorod]

The number of wires it would have will vary depending on if it's a high pressure or low pressure switch (2 wires) versus if it's a high and low pressure switch (3 wires).

-Rod

[JoeTheShmoe]

Ten four. Thank you. I will check it out today and post what I find tomorrow. What exactly does that connector do? Does it monitor something?

[shorod]

Again, I'm making a lot of assumptions about the way the PT is set up, I do not have first hand experience with this on the PT. That being said, there will be pressure switches on the R-134a lines to monitor for over- and under- pressure conditions. If the pressure gets too high or too low, the corresponding switch will open to protect the system and/or technicians. Some will be single pressure switches with 2 wires, some switches will monitor for both over- and under- pressure conditions and will have 3 wires. I'm not sure if your PT has such switches at the condenser or not. But if it does, or even in the vicinity of the radiator, disconnecting such a switch or breaking one of the wires could easily explain why the A/C stopped working after the radiator repair.

-Rod

[JoeTheShmoe]

Thanks a lot Rod. Finally got around to looking under the car. Found a pigtail just hanging out from a bundle of wires encased in plastic. Turns out my father in law probably knocked it off when the old radiator was coming out. It was a two wire connector that went into the actual a/c compressor. Plugged her back in, turned the car and switch the a/c knob to on and bam! Presto cold a/c. Thanks a lot for your help. Glad to have taken care of this problem.

[shorod]

Glad to hear you got it figured out. Out of curiosity, is that connector different from the one you mention in Post #1 that you verified was connected at the compressor? I'm only familiar with a single 2-wire connector at the compressor for the clutch field coil. I'm curious what other connectors Chrysler is using to the compressor.

-Rod