gregory13lil

My cay has stopped cooling twice now. The first time was 1 year ago, I had it recharged and it lasted about 5 months and then started blowing cold. The guy that did it did a pressure test and it passed so he told me that it would be good now.

The second time (month ago) it started blowing hot and I took it in to an Indy shop here in Killeen and I told him that I had to have a leak since this was the second issue in 5 months. They did a UV dye test and a pressure test and both passed, no leaks detected with UV. Now they want to recharge with freon and UV yet again! I am afraid that nothing will be found yet again so I did the A/C diagnostic and these are the values I got.

can someone tell me if they see anything that may need to be replaced! The temperature outside was 60 degrees. Oh yeah my EC light has been on for a month as well.

1 in-car temp (91)
2 temp outside (100)
3 heater core temp, left (159)
4 heater core temp, right (87)
5 evaporator core temp (75)
6 engine coolant temp (192)
7 refrigerant pressure (in bars) (1)
8 refrigerant temp (99)
9 not used (0)
10 blower control voltage in range .8 - 6V (max) (5.0)
11 air pollution sensor (N/A no reading for this!!)
12 sun sensor (N/A)
20 control current of aux fan (0)
21 engine RPM (x 100) (6)
22 vehicle speed, km/h (0) I was parked
23 terminal 58d battery charge, percent (100)
24 battery voltage (14.1)
40 software status register (6)
41 hardware status register (3)

I also had the following come up:

42 (200)
43 (8)

Thanks for any help!!

Greg

vettdvr

Expansion valve sticking or duct not opening. If there is freon in the system when they checked it you have one of these issues. Not a freon leak.

gregory13lil

They refilled the system about a month ago and now the air is hot and my EC light is on.

I did the check last night so I am guessing it is out of freon again since the EC light is on. BUT, how can the system be checked twice and no leaks found and it still ends up throwing out warm air later after its filled???
Would the expansion valve cause me to have the EC light and hot air blown out?

Thanks!!

AH1W-COBRA

i am under the impression that you have to select the ec mode manually to get the light to illuminate,it's not a trouble/fault light and it does effect the ac compressor duty cycle.hence the warm air.also the expansion valve is more or less a metered orfice it litterally is what creates the cooling effect of the compressed gas.if it is plugged with any type of debris including ice crystals from an improper vacume/service you will have a weak/erratic cooling effect.check the return line from the evaporator core where it enters the engine compartment,it should be ice cold.if it is id say ducting/distribution issue.if it is warm or just cool than expansion valve.

whoover

The EC light comes on when the system detects a problem and locks out the condensor. The most usual cause is low pressure due to a freon leak.

gregory13lil

No I dont have to press the EC button to get it to turn on, the EC button is on my itself all the time. The only way I can get it off is to do the car restart thing and turn it off but it still blows hot air.

sosh

Sound to me like there is a leak and perhaps you have incompetent techs looking at it. This is not rocket science. I would go to the dealer and have him do a complete system check. To start wit he should check the pressures, then if low, recharge to specs, then do a through leak check on all components and connections. To be on the safe side with 2 refills I would also chage out the drier. Dye checking is ok but the easy and least accurate menthod. There is an electronic wand device that will sense the smallest leak. Could need a new compressor or evaporator or condensor. Does not take much for the gas to escape.

gregory13lil

Sounds good, I was going to take it to the indy again just for the refill but you are right. I am going to drive the hour to the nearest shop and have them do the check again. Obviously the Indy had a chance to find it and failed. I dont think it needs a new compressor (hopefully) but it could definitely need a new drier.

Thanks!!

tcesario

the 1 bar pressure ,tells me that there is no pressure in the system or the pressure switch is faulty , the ec light is a hint that there is an ac problem ,usally low pressure does it ,if the indy guy has a set of pressure gauges and knows how to use them you could see if it is the compressor or a leak ,i would think the gauges would read low numbers on both the high and low sides ,if gauges are moving while system is on then it would be a bad compressor ,leaks on 209 's are easy to find just look at all the lines and drier ,the area with the most oily dirt is probably it ,or look at the condenser carefully too for oily dirt area 's i doubt it is the evaporator ,but you never know ,expansion valves make a hissing noise from center vents if they are stuck ,well i hope this helps ,,,,,,,,,,,,

brakel8

Your A/C system should show 5 to 7 bar of refrigerant pressure with the compressor off and as high as 16 to 18 bar with compressor running depending on outside temp and humidity. You may have a faulty pressure sensor or simply a small leak, sometimes shops don't add oil with the dye therefore takes longer for the tracer to show. Compressor will not come on at 1 bar!!!!

gregory13lil

Got it thanks..I am taking it to the dealer next week and have them do a full diagnostic on it. I am almost 100% sure that its a leak, I just need to know where it is. I dont have the 1 or 2 grand that the dealer will most likely charge for labor and parts so what I want to do is have them tell me where the leak is located and I will buy the part (hopefully a hose) from them and install at my house along with a new Drier that I found on Ebay for 25 bucks. What else should be replaced before I have them do a complete vacuum and recharge?

Thanks,
Greg

platt-deutsch

Seems the heater core temp should not be 150 deg.. Maybe the Heater water modulator valve is leaking ..

gregory13lil

Does anyone have an A/C schematic or chart for the W208's? I have heard of the parts that most are mentioning but have no idea where they are.