I have a 12 Portfolio with an AC issue… it’s acting like it’s low on charge but it’s fully charged (it’s been evacuated and recharged with the correct 700g/1.53lb of R134A).

When driving along the AC is not as cold as it should be, and the blower fan generally doesn’t move enough air, even when manually set to full high although the fan speed issue is somewhat intermittent.

At idle the air almost always quickly blows warm. If I rev the engine in neutral this helps a little, on occasion it blows cool, but still not cold. Once I’m moving again it blows cool.

pressures were higher than normal on the high side, about normal on the low side. I did not notice any fluctuation in the needles on the gauge.

The car has the permanently engaged variable compressor, not the one with the clutch.

when we first did the Evac and charge the car had 1.49lbs of refrigerant in it so apparently only .04 pounds leaked out over the past 10 years so that’s encouraging. I had it done a second time a month later and 1.53 went in and out and the car held vacuum for an hour so I don’t think it’s leaking.

the guy that did the AC service suspected a bad condenser, but reading the factory repair PDF and my own experience leads me to think it’s the expansion valve.

it appears that the expansion valve is mounted to the AC evaporator box so it will be an absolute swine to change.

any thoughts? Is there an easier way to change the expansion valve?

thanks in advance.

 

This may help.

 

Thanks for the TSB, I’ve heard of it but for some reason thought it was an issue in the XKs. I’ll give it a shot, $90 part and a few hours is better than ripping the dash out of the thing!

 

Thanks