2.3-16v A/C issue
 

I noticed it recently. The AC blows ice cold (refilled eight months ago) but the car feels like it looses power whenever the compressor kicks in.

Car runs with no issues if I turn the AC off but as soon as I turn it back on, the car starts with this intermitent loss of power. Nothing that would threat on leaving me stranded but it feels as if I would let of the gas.

The car has 73k miles on it.

Anybody has experienced this or has an idea of what could it be?

Your input will be greatly appreciated.

Sooooo....do I take it as if nobody had experienced this before?

Sort of ... may be.

I have other issues with the AC but I have noticed on start up that if I have the AC on usually in the first few min (1-2) when I pull away from a stop the car has no power (like it is starved from fuel). If I keep my foot in it it goes away in about 4 or 5 seconds. After that the car seems to be fine.

When I had some MAF work done (replacement) the problem seemed to go away for a while. Now it's back. My AC is cutting on and off as well which I think is drive belt is at fault for that.

Not sure this helps or not.

Yup....very similar to what I experience. This climate control on w201s is a royal pain.

I looked into my "ac" repairs since 2009 and they are almost 2k dollars almost. Most of the times the ac only worked for a month or so before going bad again. Too bad as the rest of my car is in mint condition :(

FIXED IT!

It was something as simple as a fuel pump relay going bad. Somehow this FPR talks to the climate control relay so everytime my compressor kicked in, my car was starving for fuel.

Got me another FPR, pulled the old one out and voila! ... car is running like a champ!

Hmmm. The starvation thing with my car only happens once or twice when the car is cold. Once I've stopped and started a few times I am good. I had a new FPR put in a few years back. Today I drove home about 20 miles or so. A/C stayed on the whole way there. Cut off once on the way back, half way home it started up again and no issues. It does not affect my engine while the A/C is on, just moving away from a stop.

Glad you fixed your issue.