Air con in mondeo

Is the system hot without using the air conditioning?

turn it to the demist the aircon automaticly kicks in to help leave it there and wait for the tell tale kick of the air con clutch kicking in and out after the 15/20 minutes or so if it doesn't then it sounds like you need a regas

This is a common problem with many cars when the friction plate on the AC compressor electro-magnetic clutch wears, and as the compressor warms up when it's in use the magnetic force required to hold the clutch engaged becomes too much. Usually the AC cuts out after 15-20 minutes of use and will not come on again until the compressor has cooled, often after the car has been off for a while. The heat spread from the running engine is usually enough to prevent the compressor from cooling enough to work again - hence it does not work again until after the engine has cooled also.

You can measure the clutch plate gap with feeler gauges. Ford may tell you the specified gap, or you may find it on-line.

Most compessors have shims to adjust this gap, and by removing the clutch plate and removing a shim or two you can get the gap back in spec. You may need to make up a puller tool to remove the plate. Depending on the compressor's location you may be able to do this in situ and without touching the refrigerant pipes. If you *do* disconnect the refrigerant pipes you'll lose the gas charge and will need the system re-charging. Do not use one of these re-fill kits from ebay, get the correct charge quantity from an AC specialist, or if you're near Bedfordshire I can re-charge it for you.

The fact your system works for 15 mins or so suggests that it has enough gas in it to cool, so probably does not need a re-charge, just the clutch gap adjusting. However if the cooling is poor when it does it may also need a re-charge.

I did this recently on my Volvo 850 and a Saab 9000, on the 850 I had to remove the compressor from the car to adjust the gap (a slow job!) but on the 9000 it could be done in-place without removing the pipes. On both cars it resolved the same fault you describe.

Hope that helps,

Alan.

Thanks for the replys.The clutch on the compressor problems, seem to me to be the most obvious.I have to shop around for prices. Any good AC engineers in SE London?.Thanks again all.