AC suddenly started blowing in warm air

Had my 95 Honda Accord Automatic re-gassed. AC worked great for day
and a half. On 2nd day, stopped car after a drive. About 10 mins later
started the car and now the AC only blows in warm air. I have fiddled
with all knobs etc but to no avail. Any ideas?

regards
sahar London, UK

 

You don't say why you had it recharged. Was it working before? If it
wasn't getting cold enough before, you may have been low on the gas as
a result of a leak. Perhaps recharging has made that more pronounced
as a result of repressurizing the system.

Or it could something simpler like knocking a wire loose on the
compressor that finally fell off after a couple of days of driving.

 

I bought the car second hand and the air conditioner was blowing only
slightly cool air.
Inspection of the AC system by a AC mechanic showed it was empty - i watched
him pump 650 cc
of AC coolant into the system

the compressor does come on when AC is turned on - i have checked this

Also, theres a little upright metal canister under the bonnet with a glass
spy hole on top
connected to the AC, when I turn it on, i see fluid and bubbles running
through ?

 

If the bubbles are large that would tend to indicate low refrigerant
pressure. Under normal circumstances you should hardly see any
bubbles. You most likely have a leak somewhere in your system.

Nick

 

Good chance that there is a leak in the system. The new planet-friendly
refrigerant, which replaces old Freon on any cars model year '94 and later,
is a much smaller molecule, which means it can leak out very quickly through
minor leaks which could require weeks or months to drain the system with the
old Freon. The system should be checked very carefully for leaks before
another recharging.

 

Do you know if your car has R-12 or R-134a refrigerant? It should be
marked somewhere under the bonnet. In the U.S. the changeover years were
1993/4 but I'm not sure if that was the case for the U.K.

With the old R-12 refrigerant, when the A/C compressor is running there
should be no bubbles in the sight glass at all under normal conditions of
temperature where A/C is normally used - that was the easy check for
refrigerant level in the system.

With the new R-134a, I'm not sure what is considered normal. I understand
that there is less liquid phase in the system, than with R-12, so *some*
bubbles may be normal. It's not such a reliable check as it used to be
which is why most mfrs no longer fit the receiver/dryer with a sight glass.

Does the A/C cycle on and off too quickly or does it just run and yet not
provide sufficient cooling? It's possible that the A/C mechanic added
refrigerant with some fluorescent indicator in it which would allow tracing
any leaks you might have.

Rgds, George Macdonald

"Just because they're paranoid doesn't mean you're not psychotic" - Who, me??

 

Turn the AC on, the fan fully on, and hold the engine at driving RPM
(~2500 RPM) for one minute. The glass should be clear or foggy. The
presence of bubbles indicates a low charge. Now drop the engine RPM
down to idle. Some bubbles may swirl through every now and then. If
they don't, it might be overcharged.

Also check the stickers for the refrigerant type. R-12 coolant is
banned and a mechanical modification may be required for use with R-134a.