P38A Air con thoughts.

The viscous fan got renewed last year as it became very stiff to move,have not had a chance to look at my car as I have been helping my son do and engine change and new clutch to his ST150. But hopefully get at it tomorrow.

J L Carr said:

The viscous fan got renewed last year as it became very stiff to move,have not had a chance to look at my car as I have been helping my son do and engine change and new clutch to his ST150. But hopefully get at it tomorrow.

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More than one person has reported a new viscous fan that was duff.

The regas has worked ,for now anyway.
Nice and cold.

Datatek said:

Pull the blue/black wire off the dual pressure switch and ground it, that will give you a full function test of the relays and fans,

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Hi Datatek, found the duel pressure switch connection and ran it to ground and both the fans started working,air cool but not cold and once plugged back fans stopped and still ran cool. The clutch did click in as well, so don't know what next but may try and do a re-gas and see what happens next.

Datatek said:

More than one person has reported a new viscous fan that was duff.

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Sorry.

J L Carr said:

Hi Datatek, found the duel pressure switch connection and ran it to ground and both the fans started working,air cool but not cold and once plugged back fans stopped and still ran cool. The clutch did click in as well, so don't know what next but may try and do a re-gas and see what happens next.

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Yes, sounds like a re-gas is needed.

J L Carr said:

The clutch is kicking in as normal and my AC pipes are getting hot,getting very little cold air out of the vents, so are you talking about the panel where the bonnet catch is, is the connections behind that one or passenger side.

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Just checking your comments on the pipes getting hot. When the compressor is turning, feel the pipes where they connect to the compressor - the thinner pipe should get hot and the thicker one should quite quickly get very very cold...

P38 Monkey said:

Just checking your comments on the pipes getting hot. When the compressor is turning, feel the pipes where they connect to the compressor - the thinner pipe should get hot and the thicker one should quite quickly get very very cold...

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Yes the small pipe was getting hot and the large pipe was cool but not cold, so I'll try a re-gas and see what happens if nothing then I'm stumped as even my Halkeye did not pick up anything to hand.

J L Carr said:

Yes the small pipe was getting hot and the large pipe was cool but not cold, so I'll try a re-gas and see what happens if nothing then I'm stumped as even my Halkeye did not pick up anything to hand.

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Diagnostics will tell you nothing on the aircon.

J L Carr said:

Yes the small pipe was getting hot and the large pipe was cool but not cold, so I'll try a re-gas and see what happens if nothing then I'm stumped as even my Halkeye did not pick up anything to hand.

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One trick worth remembering is to run the aircon all the way to Halfords, so when they do the initial test it is cold. As they want to show you a result: reduced temperature of the airflow, better that they start from a low temperature, if you see what I mean.

I would recommend having the fill valves replaced as the seals perish and cannot be picked up by the re-gas machine as they are open when vacuum testing and re-gasing

@RisforRacingnotReverse has just got a new compressor, a mahle unit à rad and the valve is to be done as well along with the dryer canister as recommended. After that, no sweaty bums!!

One quick question is how do you know if the Tri switch or the pressure switch in line are next to the cannister are duff, as Datatek told me to run the tri switch to ground and the fans worked.

One half of dual switch is used to stop the compressor running if gas pressure is too low or too high. The other half is part of the fan relay wiring. It's in RAVE.

pwood999 said:

One half of dual switch is used to stop the compressor running if gas pressure is too low or too high. The other half is part of the fan relay wiring. It's in RAVE.

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Cheers, thars coming in handy pretty soon for our Elliott

J L Carr said:

One quick question is how do you know if the Tri switch or the pressure switch in line are next to the cannister are duff, as Datatek told me to run the tri switch to ground and the fans worked.

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After a re-gas

Mark Piercy said:

Cheers, thars coming in handy pretty soon for our Elliott

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It's all in RAVE

Day 3 of my regas and its still working.
Gets cold after 15 secs, proper cold after 30 secs. ..

J L Carr said:

The clutch is kicking in as normal and my AC pipes are getting hot,getting very little cold air out of the vents, so are you talking about the panel where the bonnet catch is, is the connections behind that one or passenger side.

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As Tomcat 59 Alan says, behind the side panel in the footwell on the right side, driver's side in U K. White connector with many wires.

Just to give you all an update on the air con, managed to get it booked in to ATS near me and they did the leak test and all was ok, there was very little coolant in the system that's why I think it was intermittent with the cooling,so a recharge and all seems fine up to now. Thanks for everyone who has help with this post, keep you all posted as if it was only that.

ATS always have a Groupon deal for cheap air conditioning recharge. Currently it's £37.99 https://www.groupon.co.uk/deals/ats-euromaster-5