Ford Focus aircon takes ages to get cold

[Devil2575]

I have a 2003 Focus Ghia with climate control.

If I set the temp to LO it can take abour 10-20 minutes to start blowing properly cold air.

I can hear the compressor click on as it should. Also as it slowly getting colder it will get warm again for a few seconds then cool again several times until it finally gets properly cold.

I (foolishly) bough a home recharge kit from halfords and when I attached the pressure gauge on the low side vent it showed an acceptable pressure but it seemed to be rising and falling?

Is this a compressor problem?

[Justin S]

Sounds like short of charge. The fluctuation in the gauge is showing the compressor is starting and then tripping out on low pressure. Those bottles 'are' a good idea in the right hands, but also dangerous in others. I am an a/c engineer , so know the perils.

[Devil2575]

Thanks for the reply.

Perhaps you can help me then.

I ran the car for about 5 minutes and attached the gauge while the engine and aircon was still running. The pressure range has three regions, white which is too low, green that is good and red that is too high. It also has a rotating bezel that you adjust based on the ambient temperature This is so that you can see the range in the good region that is appropriate for the ambient temperature. The pressure indicated at the bottom of the green region but inside the aceptable for the ambient temperature region (it was about 12oC outside at the time), about 25 psig IIRC.
I connected the bottle and squirted a very small ammount of refrigerant into the system. The compressor kicked in straight away and the pressure rose to the too high region. It then dropped back again again to a safe pressure but still higher than the region indicated for the ambient temperature.

I took from this that the system was actually full and I had a different problem.

Can you offer any more advice?

http://www.interdynamics-europe.co.uk/ourproducts/...

The two products I have are the two at the top of the page, the aircon recharge and the reusable trigger dispenser and gauge.

Should I be filling it when the engine is running or not? The instructions on the bottle are not the best.

Thanks

Pete.

[Justin S]

System requires compressor operation to charge, so the engine will need to run. The compressor started to move the refrigerant as the low pressure switch on the system detected an increse in pressure and activated the clutch on the compressor and switched it on. The refrigerant charge when running should be a lot higher than 25 psi when fully charged. When the car is switched off, the charge will equalise and go possibly into the red on the gauge. You will possibly note that the condenser fans ( rad fans) might not be running until it detects more heat transfer ( IE more refrigerant in the system).
When the system is running, put a temperature probe in the vent and look for 5 to 7 deg and the suction pipe on the compressor should have a slight sweat on it ( larger pipe)

Hope that helps, but ask away if in doubt.

[Devil2575]

Will have another look at it tonight. Unfortunately access to the low pressure side port requires removal of a wheel and an arch liner, which is handy.

[Justin S]

Yes, thats sounds about right. Luckily my Focus is in the engine bay, but some of the works Ford vans have the same issues.

[Devil2575]

Tried it again last night. Pressure was sat just in the green section, about 26 psi. I put what seem like quite a bit of the refrigerant in but the pressure didn't really rise that much. It's at about 28 psi now.

However this morning it took about 2 minutes max to start blowing proper cold air out.

The real test will be tonight when I leave work and the car has been sat in the sun all day.