Ford Focus Mk3 AC is doing my head in

[Purespeed]

Sons AC has packed up and I can’t figure it out. I’ve re-gassed it and that’s fine and the compressor is kicking in when the AC is turned on. Yet it’s not cold at all. Does anyone have any idea what the problem could be?

Thanks
Jason

[stevemcs]

How do you know it has the right amount of gas in it ?

[Purespeed]

I’ve got a fill bottle with a gauge. Also there’s a pressure switch on the system that would stop the compressor turning on if the gas was low. All I can think of is the evaporator is blocked.

Edited by Purespeed on Wednesday 6th September 23:56

[Defcon5]

Do you have the manual dials for temperature control? These can fail - I had to change mine last year as moving the dial had no effect on the temperature, and didn’t alter the blower

[stevemcs]

Stop wasting your time with bottles and doing it yourself, take it to a garage and get the correct amount of gas in it. Is it on the older r134 or newer r1234 gas

[Zetec-S]

Defcon5 said:

Do you have the manual dials for temperature control? These can fail - I had to change mine last year as moving the dial had no effect on the temperature, and didn’t alter the blower

And on a similar note, we had automatic climate control on a Mk7 Fiesta which failed, temperature setting made no difference. Fixed under warranty so I can't be much help with a fix, but as Defcon says that could be the issue. I know it's not the ideal time to test with the weather at the moment, but does it blow hot?

[richhead]

Purespeed said:

I’ve got a fill bottle with a gauge. Also there’s a pressure switch on the system that would stop the compressor turning on if the gas was low. All I can think of is the evaporator is blocked.

Edited by Purespeed on Wednesday 6th September 23:56

I had this on a focus, cant remember the year,, but the evap valve was part of one of the hard lines from memory, and was not cheap. but if youve got pressure gauges it should show if the valve is blocked.

[Purespeed]

Defcon5 said:

Do you have the manual dials for temperature control? These can fail - I had to change mine last year as moving the dial had no effect on the temperature, and didn’t alter the blower

It’s automatic but that side it working as I can regulate temp from hot to ambient.

[Purespeed]

stevemcs said:

Stop wasting your time with bottles and doing it yourself, take it to a garage and get the correct amount of gas in it. Is it on the older r134 or newer r1234 gas

It’s a 2012 so the R134

[E-bmw]

As has been implied above you will likely still not have enough gas in the system, it needs doing properly.

The systems you talk about are only for topping up & do not put enough gas in to get the system up to correct working pressure, so the first step is ALWAYS to get it done properly as they will see what is already in the system, check for leaks & then put the correct amount of gas in rather than "enough" pressure.

FYI My car recently was showing next to no AC cooling but the compressor was kicking in & the system was (apparently) working with no cooling.

A discharge/test/recharge sorted it back to ice cold AC.

[Purespeed]

I’m one for doing stuff myself but it seems on this occasion I’ll have to bite the bullet and get the pros to do it. It’s actually cheaper too as those cans are quite expensive.

I’ll make sure I report back with the results.

Thanks
Jason