AC issue - no cold air, only warm

Did you have a true AC recharge from a shop or did you go the autozone route and just add refrigerant?

Mine was cold when i bought my truck but this spring/summer went warm like yours, had a shop hook up the snapon machine which removes old r410a and add new, and in between tests for leaks in the system. Unfortunately it usually costs about $150 for this service verses a $30 bottle from the auto parts store.

Now just need to figure out where the weird smell is coming from when it is turned on initially for about 2 minutes, like a dead mouse smell from vents.

 

Others already said it, check for leaks, use a refrigerant with a UV dye this time so you can track down the leak.

 

Tried that and it does not change anything wether I flip it from cold to hot or hot to cold

Compressor keeps spinning and spinning. No stops

High line is cold and low line is hot. I don't use the heater much as I don't drive the truck during winter and the only time I use it is to unfog the windshield when it's rainy/colder

Yeah I have green dye in my AC system. No gauges though


The condenser looks good, except for a few dead bugs in it, as well as the lines near and around it but I'll check more thoroughly tomorrow.
As for the receiver/dryer, I see movement of the fluid/gas, but no bubbles in the glass sight

 

Are you referring to the high line as the one on the top, and the low on the bottom of the firewall bulkhead opening? It’s actually backwards from that. The low pressure line is larger in diameter, and is closer to the top than the high pressure line. If the small diameter line is hot, and your larger diameter hose is cold, then you have an interior airflow issue. Just because you move the selector to hot then cold doesn’t actually mean the door in the dash opened and closed.
Look at the heater control valve in the middle of the firewall, has two coolant hoses and a cable attached to it. That cable is directly connected to the linkage that gives trouble. Pull, or push on the cable to help it move full stroke between hot and cold selections on the dash.
The line that gets cold, does it get cold enough to form condensation on it? I’m not sure what the humidity is like wherever you live. Also if you see water dripping out of your evaporator drain from the cab, that all confirms that the a/c is at least working to a certain extent. The next step that I would perform would be to check the pressures. If it’s overcharged the compressor will continuously run and will normally cool a lot better at highway speeds, but if it’s way overcharged it won’t cool at all. The condenser needs to be clean, but also have good airflow across it. A loose fan clutch will cause a warm at idle condition, and cool pretty good going down the road.
I don’t think your system is low of refrigerant, because the compressor continues to run. It could still be full of air and other contaminants other than refrigerant and still give you the same problem you’re experiencing.
Hope this helps, and doesn’t confuse you too much.

 

The high (smaller) line is cold, but not to the point of getting condensation on it. As for the heater control valve, the mechanism is working good.

I've removed my grille and I've found a leak right there:



Seems to be coming from the square aluminum fitting.

And for those who asked, no I didn't use a recharge kit. I had it refilled at a local shop (wasn't much expensive than the price of a kit). It's weird because should'nt they have seen it when refilling the truck? It is quite an obvious leak...

 

Some would see it.

Our laws are if you bring it to a Shop the first thing after testing pressures if the system is low is test for leaks.

Just because you found one leak it does not mean that is the only one.

Looks like they just put the gauges on Topped up the system called it good for what you paid .

Since a few days later it no longer worked .

Best of Luck.

 

Like I said, tools and stuff aren’t always necessary to fix things. It’s amazing what a good visual inspection will reveal. All that green dye would be screaming at you under a black light, but is still clearly visible without one. Now I’m concerned about that high side line being cold. Is it the same line that’s leaking, but it looks like the leak is at the condenser? If so, I would expect to find a restriction in that line. The high side hoses should be hot, when the system is full, the high side hose between the compressor and condenser should be the hottest, then the hose from the condenser to evaporator should also be hot but technically not as hot as the compressor hose. The high side line from the condenser to the expansion valve at the evaporator, just beyond the fire wall, should remain hot all the way to the expansion valve. The expansion valve is what separates the high side from the low side. Only after the expansion valve should the lines turn cold. If a high side line is cold, with the system full, follow it back to the compressor. The point where the high side hose goes from hot to cold indicates the location of a restriction. In that case, the restriction in the line is acting like an orifice tube. Unless of course it is an orifice tube system, but I think our trucks are expansion valve systems, but I could be wrong. In an orifice tube system, this would be normal, and you just located the orifice tube, at the hot to cold point.

If it is indeed an expansion valve system, like I’m assuming, a restriction would cause the high side pressures to be very high with the system full. This could be what in fact blew the o-ring at the connection in the photo. It appears to have a blown o-ring, but could be cracked. FYI there should also be a pressure relief valve on the compressor that will vent extremely high pressures to the atmosphere in the event of a restriction, it will do this to prevent an explosion, or rupture. If this valve looks like it has popped off, there will be green dye and oil everywhere around it, I would definitely be looking for a restriction. In either case, your next step is to fix the leak, charge the system and check pressures. Time to break out the tools.
Hope this helps, and not confuse you too much.

 

Bought a UV flashlight today and oh boy do I have a massive leak at the compressor gaskets, plus the one at the condenser fitting that I found ealier. Yep, there is my problem

Again, weird that they didn't see it when filling the truck. As pointed out above, they probably just topped it off and called it good

 

O-rings don’t just blow out in multiple places at once. I have 281k miles on my truck, and the a/c system has been opened to clean the airflow portion of the evaporator, I reused all o-rings and it doesn’t leak and works great. Do yourself a favor and while you have the system open, disconnect all the high side lines and blow compressed air through them. Even easier just unhook the small diameter high side hose at the fire wall and blow air through the complete high side all together, from the back of the compressor, through the condenser, to the evaporator. Air should flow through the open lines without any resistance. Put a towel on the side the air will be coming out to catch oil and mist. This will save you the cost of a shop pulling a vacuum then charging the system, it will also tell you if you have a restriction, or collapsed hose. O-rings that are not damaged can be reused. That is if you plan on fixing the truck yourself.

Example, at work I had a truck in that had a melted compressor clutch. It’s just as easy and sometimes cheaper to replace the entire compressor and clutch rather than just the clutch. That is what we did. I removed the compressor and capped the lines so the system wouldn’t be open over the weekend. I was off the following Monday, and a different technician installed the new compressor. He saw the plastic plug in the low side hose and removed it, he didn’t notice the plug in the high side hose. He put it together and charged it. The air conditioning worked great, because initially the compressor just blew a hole in the plug. After a few days it came back with leaks in multiple places, including a ruptured line. The plug came un lodged, and was pushed through five foot of bending steel line. It jammed and dead head plugged the line where that steel line connected to a rubber hose. The truck then had multiple blown o-rings and a ruptured line, that was not like that when the compressor was replaced just a few days before.
Just a scenario to show that anything can happen, hard to say if the leaks were there on your truck while it was in the shop.

 

So, I dealt with a similar issue for YEARS before finally figuring it out. Well, I didn't but an electrical wizard friend was able to diagnose! Turns out that on the back of my climate control unit, one of the solder joints had worn away/broken. He laid a new dab in and that was the ticket!

A year or so prior to it going out, I had pulled the dash and CC to do LED lights, I'm thinking at that time it damaged the joint, and the bumps and jostling of driving finally caused the solder to give way after time.

Hope this helps!

 

They may not know right away. Sometimes it can take a day or more for it to be evident. It's usually when the AC stops again. I'd just be sure to get it taken care of before that stuff washes off.

 

Is there a particular kind of UV flashlight you need to check for leaking coolant? Or will any of the $10 UV flashlights on Amazon work?

 

Yes.

 

Just did my GF's 2011 Honda Civic this past weekend. New condenser and compressor, appr. 5oz pag oil with dye, new o rings on all connections and 15oz of 134A and her AC is blowing CUBES again! Supposed to be 112 this weekend... The previous record for 110 + days in a year in Phoenix, AZ was 33. This year we've already had 51 days of 110 + with another 3 or 4 possible this weekend and early next week. This means we will eclipse the previous held record by almost 3 weeks!!! 21 more days this year than any other year on record for 110+ degree days!!! FUUUUCK!!! Listen, I've done 4 AC systems now and the Phoenix weather tells me that I must know what I'm doing at this point. I won't call myself a pro so I guess I'm a SEMI PRO???????????

 

As an update, I am going to resume working on the AC system next spring and... to add insult to injury, the AC push button fell off

so, anyone has a part number for the button assembly?
I'll try to glue it back on, but if it cannot be saved, I will need to replace it

*EDIT* Nevermind, I did find plenty of these buttons on ebay

 

How is the rest of the switch ??

I got a new one after I sort of forced things putting it together and bent the pins

 

I mean it’s pretty simple dude. If you refilled it and a week later it started blowing warm again you clearly have a refrigerant leak

 

oh, the rest of the switch is good. It's the push button where it is written A/C that just broke off, don't ask me why. I just found it on the passenger footwell this morning. And I never did abuse the poor button as my AC has never been functional (empty on refrigerant) since I have the truck. I guess it is just old age...

 

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I need this exact part. I ordered it online because the picture looked like that hose and they sent me the wrong part. but i think its the same line but for a different year bcuz i seen on the newer year tacoma this line is all wiggly and stuff. I need this exact part number ‍♂️