Why is my air conditioning not very cold?!?

Question

I drive a 2001 Ford Focus LX Saloon, with a 1.6litre 16valve Zetec SE engine.

This is the first car I've owned thats had proper air conditioning, and now its got to the summer I'm starting to use it. Thing is, it doesnt seem to do very much at all. It doesnt seem any colder than having the ordinary fan on. On a hot day, it isnt until you've been driving for about 25mins that you actually get any cool air. Even then its not cold. So you have to have open windows instead.

Any ideas as to why this is? I've heard people talk about getting their air con 'charged'. What does this entail and would it help me? Is it an expensive proceedure?

Appreciate any help you can offer.
Cheers

Answer 1

I had the same problem with a Peugeot 306 air conditioning so I had it checked out by an air conditioning expert and he found there was no gas in the system so he recharged the unit.I drove to the garage with windows open and blower on full,I drove away from the garage with windows closed and blower on very very low.Cost me £56 but it was money well spent,tried turning the blower up high once and nearly got frost bite in my toes.Hope this helps

Answer 2

There is a liquid/gas that makes the air conditioner work. It absorbs the heat around it and turns to gas and when the gas passes through the compressor, the pressure releases the heat and turns the chemical to liquid to go around again. The chemical used to be freon and probably still is for older cars. Freon is bad for the atmosphere so now they have another chemical that does the same sort of job. The Freon leaks out even the smallest hole in the a/c tubes that go round and round. It seems sure that most of your coolant has leaked away. If they can find the leak, fix it, and then refill (recharge) the system with coolant (Freon), then it could be good as new. An a/c comes in two major parts and both of them together cost $3000 to replace the a/c on one car I had......so I got a newer car. An estimate is what you need from a place that mostly does only car a/c repairs. They are better prepared to give you what you need at the cheapest cost. It is going to be some dirty place in a bad or working warehouses part of town. Every town has this place to fix car a/c. Ask other car repair places where they send the a/c for repair. You may get the whole thing fixed for one or two hundred dollars.

Answer 3

I have a Ford Galaxy with the same problem. It used to work - after 2 minutes it blew ice-cold air, it was fabulous. I took it to a garage on Saturday afternoon to get it re-gassed. Unfortunately there was no one there who could do it as all the mechanics were at home watching the England-Portugal match, but the girl on the desk did tell me it would take about 40 minutes, would cost £50 but would almost certainly fix the problem.

It's going to be 31 degrees tomorrow so now that England are out of the world cup I might just go along first thing in the morning!

Answer 4

Most people want to save money and just add a bit of freon. My neighbor had that attitude, he added freon, over-filled it, and blew up his condensor, which will cost him several hundred dollars to fix.

The right way to service a/c is to leak check it, fix all leaks, then remove all the freon and add back the correct amount.

If you must do it, add like two ounces and see if it helps. Not two pounds, that may be full capacity. That is exactly the mistake my neighbor made, added the two pounds to a system that was already nearly full.

When you add it, if you must, make sure you don't have air in the do-it-yourself hoses. that is, you must let a tiny bit of freon go out that hose to get rid of the air before you get it fully connected to the intake port. Air in an a/c increases pressures dramatically, and can wreck your system fast, because unlike freon air doesn't efficiently expand and contract with the same operation as freon does.
.

Answer 5

Your air conditioning system has a leak. You still have SOME refrigerant in the system, but not enough to do a proper job.
Take it to the dealer or someone who specializes in re-charging air conditioning systems in automobiles. They will pressure-check your system for leaks and pump a couple of pounds of freon or the equivalent coolant into it.
It will probably cost you about $75.00.

Answer 6

Hum, not good... The easiest thing for you to check is the filter. If it clogged your system can stop working, however that fact that air is still moving in the system indicates that its a long shot. It's usually located near the fan that moves the air. There are many other things that could have happened but you need to call a professional repairman if changing the filter doesn't help.

Answer 7

The car is a 2001? It probably needs a refill on the coolant
and the chemicals that the air conditioner works with.
But in most cars, the air conditioner takes time to cool. I remeber, my last year in high school. My parents bought a volvo.
Every hot day, we'd turn on the air c oindioner in the car. But the car was never cooled down, until we got closer to home.

Answer 8

Take your car to a garage that deals with this sort of thing. The main dealer will do it, but will charge you an arm and a leg. It should cost £50 to £100 to get the gas recharged, and then it should work.
If this doesn't work then you may have more of a problem.....

Answer 9

"charged" means that the mechanic will add more refirdgerant to the AC system. the refridgerant is freon. charging tyour ac system may help..but it could..COULD also be the AC system itself..compressor may not be engaging..sensors may be bad...but the most simplest and logical answer would be that it needs to be charged. you may have the aptitude to do it yourself, but a mechanic has the know how not to over or under charge the AC system. I don't have AC, don't want it, (also it uses more fuel when you do use it, hands down) it's not too expensive, but i won't tell you an exact amount and then change it to pounds, and be wrong. maybe $50 USD

Answer 10

Hello Bravobro. I had the same problem with my peugeot 206.
It only blew warm air through the air con. i took it to a garage and they told me it needed re-gasing and that it could poss be a leak.
He quoted me about £70.00 - £100. I decided to leave it and open the windows instead. Now how you feel! Take it to garage and get a quote or your nearest dealer. good luck!