[s-cars] AC and Coolant reservoir Q's

[Djdawson2 at aol.com]

In a message dated 4/7/04 8:59:06 AM Mountain Daylight Time, riff944 at cox.net 
writes:
1.  With the AC, I tried mine recently, but it did not blow especially cold 
air.  Had the climate control turned to LO, granted the outside temp was only 
60*F, but still it was not cold.  Any chance there is an interior temp sensor 
that would not allow it to blow too cold?
Yes, there is.  But I'd bet you have another issue... noted below.


Another note on this, when the "shop" recently did my t-belt, they needed to 
drain/re-fill my AC.  They also said they had a problem re-filling the 
refrigerant.  I do not remember reading anywhere that you need to purge the AC system 
when doing the t-belt.
They should never have "drained" your system to do a timing belt.  I'll bet 
they had a problem recharging it...!  The S4 system does not have a low side 
port.  There is only a high side port, and it is supposed to be charged with a 
measured (lbs) charge of refrigerant.  I'd bet that you don't have a full 
charge of refrigerant.  Turn your A/C on at some point, and see if your compressor 
is even actually engaged.  If not, chances are the system isn't adequately 
charged to close the low pressure switch... no A/C.


2.  Car is spilling a little coolant.  Opened the hood yesterday after the 
ride home.  There was some coolant blowing (spitting actually) past the hose 
clamp on the return line to the reservoir.  The clamp was on tightly and I 
believe that the nipple there is free of damage, though I did not remove to confirm. 
 Provided the fitting is OK, I take this to mean that the reservoir vent cap 
is no longer funcitoning?  Is this piece dealer only???
I'd check your coolant level in the reservoir after the engine has cooled.  
It is possible that they didn't fill it properly... trapped air, and that now 
it is low.  I'd be a little skeptical about your shop at this point...
HTH,
Dave in CO