A/C PROBLEM
- Thread starter SvT97
- Start date
blackfang
Founding Member
+1 heres my post last summer when I had similiar issues with the ac
http://forums.stangnet.com/showthread.php?t=711661
Not necessarily related to your problem but I feel like it's good FYI--
I just went through some AC hell on my 03 Term; I got the "can" of R134a and filled my system just to make sure I had some oil in it after changing a bad compressor out myself. I couldn't get it to fill enough so that the compressor safety switch would stop disengaging the clutch. Long story short I took the car to an AC specialty shop, and the process to fill the Cobra's 134A appetite is pretty involved.
First of all the machine they use is 5K and they don't make a cheap recovery system. The first machine cycle does a 15 minute vacuum purge to make sure there is no trapped air in the system, the next cycle is about 30 minutes and this is the one that adds the 134a. The Cobra needs exactly 2.2 pounds of the R134a; not enough (as little as .2 under) and it will not get cold enough. If you go over by as little as .2 (2.4) this is enough to add another 100PSI at the head! Moral of the story is don't mess around with the cans of R134a from AutoZone - you will never get the PSI needed and even if you do it's not worth the headache if something goes wrong. Not to say you can't do this yourself but for $110 it was worth having the shop doing it.
I would say do what I did and save yourself some labor $$ on the compressor installation and do it yourself (the guy at the AC shop was quite pleased he didn't have to do it). Of course as with everything else on these cars it's a "tight" work space so prepare for some frustration. Not to mention trying to put in your new compressor filled with 6oz of new R134a oil and not spilling it is fun, good luck hanging on to your ratchet too!
I just went through some AC hell on my 03 Term; I got the "can" of R134a and filled my system just to make sure I had some oil in it after changing a bad compressor out myself. I couldn't get it to fill enough so that the compressor safety switch would stop disengaging the clutch. Long story short I took the car to an AC specialty shop, and the process to fill the Cobra's 134A appetite is pretty involved.
First of all the machine they use is 5K and they don't make a cheap recovery system. The first machine cycle does a 15 minute vacuum purge to make sure there is no trapped air in the system, the next cycle is about 30 minutes and this is the one that adds the 134a. The Cobra needs exactly 2.2 pounds of the R134a; not enough (as little as .2 under) and it will not get cold enough. If you go over by as little as .2 (2.4) this is enough to add another 100PSI at the head! Moral of the story is don't mess around with the cans of R134a from AutoZone - you will never get the PSI needed and even if you do it's not worth the headache if something goes wrong. Not to say you can't do this yourself but for $110 it was worth having the shop doing it.
I would say do what I did and save yourself some labor $$ on the compressor installation and do it yourself (the guy at the AC shop was quite pleased he didn't have to do it). Of course as with everything else on these cars it's a "tight" work space so prepare for some frustration. Not to mention trying to put in your new compressor filled with 6oz of new R134a oil and not spilling it is fun, good luck hanging on to your ratchet too!
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