Hello all, I've been through this site pretty good! I just recently replaced my wifes compressor, drier, and orifice tube on her 2004 X-Type. Had it vacuumed and charged to specs. Also replaced serpentine belt as well. All fuses have been checked in both fuse boxes. When AC is on the compressor clutch is turning but not turning off, it's just turning continuously . The lines are not sweating at all. When I turn off the AC the clutch stops turning. The fans are also running when AC is on. It does look as if one of the fans is not spinning as fast as the other. Wife is pregnant and we are in Houston TX, so she's not very happy. She has been driving my truck and she hates it cause its big. Any advice or help is good advice. Thanks Jeff!

 

Jeff, odds are, your problem lies with the blend door inside the dash. Now, I am making the assumption that when the A/C system was open, the lines were blown to make sure that they were clear. If you went through that much work, it must have been because they suspected that the dryer had failed, tossing all sorts of garbage into the system. I don't think this is the issue as the compressor should be shutting off on over pressure if there was a true blockage that was stopping all flow. But, if you have something that is blocking most of the flow, that will cause your heat transfer to occur somewhere else than at the cooling coil in the dash.

If you remove the glove box and look to the left inside the opening you just created, you will see 3 actuators on the side of a large black column (your air duct). 2 actuators are stacked 1 on top of the other and then one will be up against the firewall. The one you are interested in is the one against the firewall. You can remove the actuator and then manually rotate the damper. If you can get cool air then, either the actuator is failed or the shaft is slipping inside the actuator (the fix is to glue the shaft to the actuator, if this is the case, I have a TSB that details how to fix it, let me know).

Hope this gets things working for you.

 

This is the elephant in the room.

Chances are your compressor is still at fault, or there is a blocked orifice tube, that would explain why the high pressure switch is not shutting off compressor...Just because it's new, it still could have got clogged up with some debris again.

While running, can you report what the pressures are?...You'll need a set of Manifold Gauges with the proper port adapters?

 

I will look at both options thanks guys I will get a set of gauges put on it soon.

 

Thermo, I took out the actuator closest to the firewall and turned on car and ac. The actuator itself is not moving I hit recirc and still no movement. What should I be looking for!

 

Bowtoya, if you look, there is a shaft that goes into the center of the actuator. You should be able to see the center turn about 90 degrees as I recall. You can have the actuator off of the shaft and in your hand as you dial the temp up and down. You should see the actuator move. If it doesn't, then you are looking at either a bad actuator (swap it with one of the other ones and then see what happens) or the control panel is dead and it is not sending a signal to the actuator.

 

Ok when you say dead you mean no power or just not sending the signal to the actuator

 

Ok the actuators are no moving on the one closest to firewall and the one on the bottom of the two that are stacked is not working either. I swapped them and still nothing. Got my battery tested, show to be good. I'm lost!

 

Bowyota, yes, when I say dead, I mean no movement, no power to the device. Now, with that being said, if you are using a multimeter, you may see some crazy voltages as it won't be a true 12 VDC signal that you would think. You may see something in the neighborhood of say 6 VDC or something like that as it is a pulsed signal and the multimeter is going to take the average of it.

But, from what you are describing, it is sounding like what is controlling your A/C system is what the issue is, not so much what equipment is being used.

I guess I should have asked this question before. Do you have the generic system with the controls above the radio or do you have the Nav system where the controls are built into the radio? This does change how the system operates a little bit and can possibly affect what we are seeing.

 

No navi, it's the generic

 

Bowyota, just to make sure that we are not chasing something simple here, I want you to check a few fuses. Please keep in mind that there is some changes that were made in the middle of the 2004 model year, so, what I am telling you is based on your car being made after March 2004 (this information is in the driver's door jam). Check to make sure the following fuses are good:

Fuse F49 (10 amp fuse) in the passenger footwell fuse box
Fuse F39 (10 amp fuse) in the passenger footwell fuse box
Fuse F45 (10 amp fuse) in the passenger footwell fuse box

If all 3 of these fuses are good and the stepper motors are not working, then this pretty much only leaves the control panel as being your problem. You can do a hand over hand of the wiring between the actuators and the control panel just to make sure there isn't damaged wiring, but the control panel is going to be your more likely problem.

Hope this gets things going for you.

 

Im at the fire station for 24hrs so I will check tomorrow, thanks!

 

So Thermo, the stepper motors not working, would that cause my compressor to continueously run when the AC is on.

 

Bowtoya, the compressor should run all the time when the A/C is on unless the system pressure is getting too high. Then the pressure switch will shut off the compressor long enough to allow the pressure to bleed off.

Granted, I have to ask the silly question, what makes you think the compressor is running all the time? From what I know about freon systems, from what you are describing, the compressor should run for very little time as the freon is not moving (based on the piping not sweating). Which, this again points me back to a fuse being blown. Doing a little bit more research, there's one more fuse to check:

Fuse F5 (10 amp fuse) under the hood

The other thing that I would tell you to try is to swap Relays R1 (high beam/fog light relay) and R3 from the fuse box under the hood. This will prove that the relay is not the issue. If still in doubt, you can use a small piece of wire to go between the spots for pins 3 and 5 to force the compressor to engage. if you do this, just make sure to do it for the minimal amount of time as you are also over riding the safety features. I would say to have the dash fan turned on to high and the temperature dialed as low as possible to make sure that the system pressure will be forced as low as it can go. Then I would only do it long enough to ensure the compressor will actually engage then remove the wiring.

if you have more questions, let me know.

 

Sorry I didn't explain. When the AC is turned on the compressor clutch is continueously spinning. Isn't it supposed to kick in and out?

 

Bowyota, there is a few things that will cause it to kick in and out. The big thing being that the discharge pressure gets too high and it trips the over pressure trip. Otherwise it should remain running most of the time.

Not to ask a silly question, but, have you checked the charge on the A/C system. I know they just did a lot of work, but if there is a small leak, it may be that you don't have cooling because there is no freon in the system any more. Granted, it doesn't explain the actuators not working though. Just another one of those things that should be checked to ensure we are not being confused by something else.

 

All fuse and relays are good, I will have someone come and put some gauges on it

 

I went ahead and manually shut the white recirculating door

 

Still hot!!!!!!!

 

Help!!!!!