Air-con intermittently stops working.

[Ben Up North]

This has been going on some time, doesn't normally bother me that much as most of the time I don't use it, but the family always needs it on.

What happens is that the air-conditioner randomly stops working. It seems to be completely independent to whatever else is happening at the time (i.e engine temprerature, vehicle speed, outside termperature seems to have no effect at all.)

Turning the air-con off for about 30 seconds then back on again seems to fix it, if you turn it off then back on again almost immediately it doesn't.


Any suggestions as to what might be going on? The only thing I can think of is that there is air in the system and when enough of it gets in the same place it creates an airlock (in the pump perhaps?) preventing the fluid from travelling around and thus no cold air to the cabin.

Has anyone else experienced this?

Thanks in advance if you can help.

 

[temmah]

Hey Ben, can you check the odb2 fault codes? If applicable to your car?

Tim

 

[Rally]

Maybe low on gas. Or, it might have too much.

 

[Ben Up North]

[MENTION=14807]temmah[/MENTION] I didn't think I'd get any codes from the OBD, will have a look.
[MENTION=44]Rally[/MENTION] I was thinking perhaps low on gas too.

Had a bit of a squiz around the interwebs and one of the common suggestions is that the a/c clutch might be slipping. I checked the gap with my ancient feeler gauges and it was wider than it should be.
So I've bodged it closer temporarily with some plastic shims from the outside as has been done by other bodgers to see if that makes a difference. Assuming it does, I'll do it properly.