So my mother kindly bought me an S-Type (2005 2.7L D) and since we got it the A/C hasn't operating as we'd like it to be.

When the engine is cold the A/C is fine but after five or ten minutes of driving suddenly the cabin is hit with super-heated super-hot air at max blower speed.


The car is under "1-year guarantee" from the dealership so we took it back to their garage. Among a number of other faults (which they fixed! much appreciated), they started work on the A/C.

Just got the car back today and all was fine ("we fixed the A/C") but... after five or ten minutes of driving... again... hot air.


Should I take it back to the dealer (they sell Honda cars but it seems they also maintain a large number of S-Types) or look for an independent A/C specialist? Any diagnostic suggestions would be welcome. I'm tempted to give up on the A/C now (summer isn't that hot over here).

One other thing I'm concerned about is an unnatural loss of power steering fluid. Told the dealer and they said they'd "take a note about it" but it appears they haven't done anything. Too early to see if it's still losing a lot of fluid, though.

Help is appreciated.

Thanks.

Take it back - if Scotland's like England in this situation (here, messing yourself would undermine your rights against the seller).

It's probably the DCCV and/or the CCM - you don't want to be buying parts or paying for fitting.
Search on DCCV to understand what it is etc.

If the 1 year guarantee is an in-house type of thing that dictates the car be repaired ONLY by the seller it can makes things difficult as they may not have the expertise or technical resosurces ....even though their intentions are good.

If the guarantee is a third party "service contract" or "warranty" you can take it to someone more familiar with Jags and likely get a better result.

I can't offer any tech advice, sorry. To me a 1995 Jag is still a "new model" :-) :-)

Cheers
DD

As jagv8 stated, sounds like a dual climate control valve(dccv) not closing so that as soon as the engine comes up to temp. The hot air from the heater will always overcome the ac. On the ccm(climate control module) the have 2 negative drivers to closed the dccv so no engine hot coolant goes to the heater. They can be shorted out by coolants leaks in/on the dccv or an internal short. To verify simply take a small pair of vise grips with needle nose ends and clamp off the large rubber hose(there are 2 small and 1 large going to the firewall) this will do the saem job as the dccv. If it now stays cool you need a new dccv, and possibly a climate control module. I dont know about location of your car since youre on the other side of the pond. There are 2 wires to check for ground/power signal on the side of the dash that lead out to the dccv and as you scroll from heat to cold on the ac youll see the signal going from power to ground. If not on both or just 1 circuit youll need a new climate control module(ac diplay unless you have navigation 0 in which case its a seperate module under the dash

Sounds like they didn't properly test drive the vehicle after the AC "fix." Take it back, get them to ride along with you and show them. Like others mentioned your options may/may not be limited as far as place of service goes based on the warranty type, so if you would clarify that you may get some more input from the board.

Usually give the shop at least 2 attempts to get it fixed correctly. Yes they should get it right the first time but they are also human.

AC in Scotland? Must be global warming.

It is possible to repair the CCM if the warranty doesn't pick it up you may want to look at that.

Thanks for the help everyone; and the analysis jagv8, great explanation Brutal.

I think you may be right, Chris X. Will take it back to them later next week; don't want to look like I'm 'abusing' their generosity though because, as I said before, they've sorted a lot of stuff on the vehicle already. Might break something if I mess with it myself though; going to look up the guarantee they gave in more detail before attempting anything.

lol, norri. It isn't that bad aye. Just a bit of a greenhouse when sitting in the sun for a little while; nothing an open window couldn't sort out though!