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AC on 2002 X5 3.0

I posted this question a while back but I thought another try might solicit some input. The air conditioning in my X5 has begun to blow hot. But, it is somewhat cool from the left driver vent by the driver door (about 75 F after about 5 minutes after sitting in 98F outside heat) and then progressively hotter on each vent to the right. Even with MAX pressed the air is at about 10 degrees F warmer in each of the center-left, center-right, and then far right passenger vent and this tracks with the progressively cooler air from the far left vent. The rear is about as warm as the center-right. After some time the interior will cool down but the efficiency is down to maybe 20 percent of normal. In Dallas Texas right now this is just about miserable. Any ideas?

Reply to
tpintexas
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Low refrigerant?

Tom K.

Reply to
Tom K.

Climate head unit?

Check this website:

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Reply to
Toby

Being an '02, it could be as simple as a recharge on your regfrigerant. One of two options would work for you. Either stop by an Autozone and pick up a recharge kit for $20 or so, connect it to the low pressure port, which should have a grey cap with an "L" on it, or pay God knows how much to your dealer or an AC shop to recharge it.

The recharge cans usually have the oil and cleaner ingredients, too, so you should be good to go in that sense.

Did that on a few of my vehicles here in very humid southeast Nebraska, and it works like a champ, but Houston has a much longer term of AC use every year than we have, so that could be why its run out that soon.

The nice thing is, on vehicles built after 1990 or so, most of them don't let the compressor fire up if the charge is too low, so you won't damage anything, theoretically..

Reply to
erslincoln

Thanks Eric. I gave in and took the X5 to the dealer. They reported that the problem was the high side Schrader (spelling?) valve was leaking. They said that when they took off the cap - presumably to do some pressure test - that gas escaped into the atmosphere. They evacuated the system and recovered .37 pounds of gas. Replaced that valve, recharged, and found no other leaks.

They explained that the chilled refridgerant comes on on the side of the evaporator that serves the left vents and that there was not enough cooling capacity left to cool the air flowing to the right or rear vents.

$370 later I have nice cold air all around. Maybe next time I'll just recharge once or twice and see how far that gets me.

Eric @ TWC Bus> Being an '02, it could be as simple as a recharge on your regfrigerant. One

Reply to
tpintexas

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