Ellery
Well-known member
So I have a 2009 VW Jetta sportwagen TDI. Its been btw an amazing car for me with next to no maintenance issues.
As of last summer, it seemed my AC was just not working as well here in hot/humid AL.
It got me by without dying, but by end of that summer, I knew I would need to tackle this.
Now I am doing so.
So my dad lives north of me 2 hours drive in Huntsville, AL, so I went up there on Saturday (2 days ago) and he agreed to take a look at it.
The symptoms at that point were pretty much that no matter what I did, the temp at the vents were 59 degrees. But over the past year of use, I noticed it would sometimes kick on for a bit and be cooler, and other times just go off. No apparent rhyme or reason I could tell overall.
My dad first had me clamp off one of the hot water hoses going into the firewall...that did nothing.
Then I brought it up to him Saturday (keep in mind, I am a pharmacist, not a mechanic, so my ability to describe tech details may be limited):
He put the gauges on the system, and overall pressures did not seem terribly low, although he noticed a bit of an odd pattern in the pressures...the low pressure side he said would be higher, like 50-60psi, and the high side seemed flaccid at 125psi (it was nearly 90 degrees outside) - inside temp at the thermomenter in vent was still about 60 degrees as it always had been.
He re-clamped the hot water hoses just to see if that was it, nope.
He then thought it may just be a bit low given low pressure on the high side, and attempted to add some Freon...well, so then it accepted a couple ounces (we were monitoring intake via an electronic scale) and then it would accept no more, even when attempting to drive it with it all hooked up in a dynamic state. Also, per my dad, the pressures just did not look normal and move or respond when driving as he would expect....
He began to think it was the compressor. Especially when he saw "it was always running" (later he found out this is not a clutch type compressor).
Anyway, he was pretty convinced, so we went and bought a compressor and that long black tube thingy (dryer, something or the other), as well as some other control valve that you must buy to get the warranty...all were installed, except for that valve, which apparently is a 15 hour job per my dad, and he was not convinced that was the problem.
The result of that was, first, cranked up the car, loaded in the first 12oz canister, and it took it fine, and the system was cranking out 40 degree air...then after trying to add the second can to spec, it would not accept hardly any of the second can...then we applied some RPM's and that's when the system went hot, warm/humid air blew out...talk about buzz kill.
he actually evacuated the system again and recharged, and it did the very same thing...very cold, then gas applied, dies.
I had to drive back home after that, ran out of time...the next morning, I started the car, and it went to 40 degrees at idle, then once driving same thing...warm...then after a bit of driving, it was "cool" but not cold.
spent about 600 bucks so far, and technically have not yet breached the subject of paying my dad's labor yet), I am probably going to need to figure out something on my own (unlikely, but hey, I can hope) or take it to another person to do diagnostics.
After reading on this forum for a while though in the last 12 hours, I read about this electronic valve in the compressor...well, I would have started with that before putting in the whole darn compressor, but hey, a new one is in the new compressor, so I assume that is not it now...
My dad does not think it is the fans bad, I plan on looking closely at those, but he said when running at 70mph you should definitely cool all the same even if the fans did not turn at all? I did confirm that the fans appear thought to be running when I am having this issue.
Dad now is wondering if this is some central control issue or some other thing causing the system to shut down....he is pretty unfamiliar with this AC system really and is in the process of trying to find schematics and such so he can know where to look.
Also, I piddled pressing the AC on and off in the car, as well as recirc and nothing...no change.
I am just hoping someone here may say something helpful to me...
THANKS AHEAD OF TIME
As of last summer, it seemed my AC was just not working as well here in hot/humid AL.
It got me by without dying, but by end of that summer, I knew I would need to tackle this.
Now I am doing so.
So my dad lives north of me 2 hours drive in Huntsville, AL, so I went up there on Saturday (2 days ago) and he agreed to take a look at it.
The symptoms at that point were pretty much that no matter what I did, the temp at the vents were 59 degrees. But over the past year of use, I noticed it would sometimes kick on for a bit and be cooler, and other times just go off. No apparent rhyme or reason I could tell overall.
My dad first had me clamp off one of the hot water hoses going into the firewall...that did nothing.
Then I brought it up to him Saturday (keep in mind, I am a pharmacist, not a mechanic, so my ability to describe tech details may be limited):
He put the gauges on the system, and overall pressures did not seem terribly low, although he noticed a bit of an odd pattern in the pressures...the low pressure side he said would be higher, like 50-60psi, and the high side seemed flaccid at 125psi (it was nearly 90 degrees outside) - inside temp at the thermomenter in vent was still about 60 degrees as it always had been.
He re-clamped the hot water hoses just to see if that was it, nope.
He then thought it may just be a bit low given low pressure on the high side, and attempted to add some Freon...well, so then it accepted a couple ounces (we were monitoring intake via an electronic scale) and then it would accept no more, even when attempting to drive it with it all hooked up in a dynamic state. Also, per my dad, the pressures just did not look normal and move or respond when driving as he would expect....
He began to think it was the compressor. Especially when he saw "it was always running" (later he found out this is not a clutch type compressor).
Anyway, he was pretty convinced, so we went and bought a compressor and that long black tube thingy (dryer, something or the other), as well as some other control valve that you must buy to get the warranty...all were installed, except for that valve, which apparently is a 15 hour job per my dad, and he was not convinced that was the problem.
The result of that was, first, cranked up the car, loaded in the first 12oz canister, and it took it fine, and the system was cranking out 40 degree air...then after trying to add the second can to spec, it would not accept hardly any of the second can...then we applied some RPM's and that's when the system went hot, warm/humid air blew out...talk about buzz kill.
he actually evacuated the system again and recharged, and it did the very same thing...very cold, then gas applied, dies.
I had to drive back home after that, ran out of time...the next morning, I started the car, and it went to 40 degrees at idle, then once driving same thing...warm...then after a bit of driving, it was "cool" but not cold.
spent about 600 bucks so far, and technically have not yet breached the subject of paying my dad's labor yet), I am probably going to need to figure out something on my own (unlikely, but hey, I can hope) or take it to another person to do diagnostics.
After reading on this forum for a while though in the last 12 hours, I read about this electronic valve in the compressor...well, I would have started with that before putting in the whole darn compressor, but hey, a new one is in the new compressor, so I assume that is not it now...
My dad does not think it is the fans bad, I plan on looking closely at those, but he said when running at 70mph you should definitely cool all the same even if the fans did not turn at all? I did confirm that the fans appear thought to be running when I am having this issue.
Dad now is wondering if this is some central control issue or some other thing causing the system to shut down....he is pretty unfamiliar with this AC system really and is in the process of trying to find schematics and such so he can know where to look.
Also, I piddled pressing the AC on and off in the car, as well as recirc and nothing...no change.
I am just hoping someone here may say something helpful to me...
THANKS AHEAD OF TIME
