expensive a/c trouble?

[niemo810]

hi all, i was hoping some of you could help me with the a/c system in my 94 3.8 non supercharged eighty-eight LSS.

i'm not sure why i decided to post about my a/c in the dead of winter, but here goes...

my a/c doesnt work and it hasn't since ive owned the car. i have the electronic temerature cluster, and the display doesn't flash so i know there aren't any codes stored. (i don't know if this matters or not, but the backlight for the a/c button doesnt light up like the rest of the buttons when the lights are on) anyway, the compressor doesnt engage so i know it isn't a lack of refrigerant. while the car was on (and a/c) i unplugged the plug from the compressor and tested it with a multimeter. nothing, no signal at all. every fuse in the car was good, i checked them all.

what could be the problem here?

thanks in advance for your help.

[Master01]

Do a search in the forum, to fix your problem is that you have to disconect your battery and then turn on the headlights for 10 seconds and this resets the climate control computer and if you fixed your ac system recently and it still dosen't work give this a try. The problem with this car is that the climate control computer faults out because of low freon or some other cause and if it faults 3 or more time it locks you out of the system.

[niemo810]

i've already done that. didn't solve a thing. if i had the system recharged would that stop it from faulting? i thought the temp would flash when it faulted but it hasn't ever done that.

by the way, master, i have searched the forum.

thanks for the quick reply though

-Rob

[atv087]

check your relays thats what it as on my car causing my ac not to work at all. theres one if your looking from the front of the engine its the first one you see coming from the left to right.

[MT-2500]

For some good AC help
http://www.autoacforum.com/

[Master01]

Originally Posted by niemo810

i've already done that. didn't solve a thing. if i had the system recharged would that stop it from faulting? i thought the temp would flash when it faulted but it hasn't ever done that.

by the way, master, i have searched the forum.

thanks for the quick reply though

-Rob

Yeah it would fault because when you run the defroster it uses the a\c system. But yeah you might want to check the relays, especially the a\c one. Does the system have freon in it?

[niemo810]

where's the relay located? i havent checked to see if there's freon. dont know how. how do i bypass the 'low freon' switch to see if the compressor is good?

[atv087]

looking from the front of the car at the relays behind the motor the ac relay is the one all the way to the left its the first one if your going left to right another way you can quickly see if theres any pressure open the little cap on the a/c line and take a flathead screwdriver and quickly press down the valve it it shoots out a nice gust of r-12 or r134 which ever your car is then change the relay chances are your relay is bad or you just need your system recharged. also if you go to autozone.com and click on repair info they should have a service manual for your car that you can view and print out for free.

hope this helps some

[atv087]

also theres a switch you can jump that would make it kick on i believe its some sort of a low pressure switch when i jumped it doing the a/c work on my car it kicked the compressor on. The way i did it was theres a plug if your looking from the front of the car all the way in the back left corner its going to be under the plastic piece that covers up the fuses and relays and everything its a plug going right into where the a/c lines go into and it has 2 blue wires if you unplug that and stick a paper clip in it and it kicks on your low on r134 if you stick a paper clip in and it does nothing id go back to the relay.

[niemo810]

thanks for the reply, i'll try those things when the weather warms up 15 degrees or so (it's only 9 degrees fahrenheit)

[atv087]

yeah its cold as hell here in new york i have to change my idle air control valve but i wont even bother with it until its warm out i dont like freezing my ass off.