Intermittent A/C

["Spire, Ed" <ed.spire@missioncritical.com>]

I had asked a while back about an A/C problem on Der Uberwgn,
intermittent compressor operation on startup, clears up after a while.
Several folks suggested low pressure.  Turns out that wasn't it at all.
What it was, was a corroded connector on the way to the radiator fan.
When the car isn't moving, the fan comes on to cool the A/C exchanger,
and if it doesn't come on (because the connector's bad), the A/C system
notices that it can't exchange heat (pressure gets too high) and shuts
off the compressor.  When the car is moving, normal air flow is
sufficient to keep everything working.

About the same time, we in Houston got into a very hot spell, temp's
exceeding 100F every day, and the A/C went to a state where it would not
work at all, no matter how much air was moving across the radiator.  I
was thinking I had a low pressure problem that was now a no-pressure
problem.  But the dealer was convinced that there was a "resistor"
component in the A/C circuit that had gone out, and I let them replace
it, at a total cost of $400!  The thing with the fan wasn't found out
until after that costly item was replaced, and they fixed the connector
for free as a result of having a pissed-off customer ($400 and it still
doesn't work right.)  I'm still not completely convinced that the
"resistor" was ever really bad, but what's done is done.