1. Home
  2. Automotive Technologies
  3. A/C takes too long to get cold... diagnosis???

A/C takes too long to get cold... diagnosis???

The A/C on my wife's 1998 Maxima works perfectly, gets the car nice and cool, blows cold air, etc. Exactly like it should. The refrigerant level is exactly correct. The one, single problem it has is: it takes too long to get cold. It's been this way for several years now.

On a hot summer day (95+) when the car's been sitting in the driveway for several hours, it just blows hot air for 3 or 4 minutes, and then starts gradually getting cool. It doesn't start blowing real, "cold air" for at least 6 to 8 minutes. After that, it's fine, even if we stop somewhere and shut off the engine for 20-30 minutes.

Any suggested diagnoses?

Thanks, Ron M.

Reply to
Ron M.
Loading thread data ...

Reply to
Shep

Sounds OK to me. You need to keep in mind that all the ductwork in the system is also hot. That is why the air takes a bit to get really cold. That plastic has to cool off first. About the only way to stop this is to park the car in a BIG freezer unit instead of out in the heat.

Steve W.

Reply to
Steve W.

That is an excellent point. Anything you can do to decrease the temperature or heat load inside the car will help.

If it is 100F outside, the temperature inside the car parked in full sun can easily be 140 or higher.

Leaving windows slightly open, dash shades, tinted film, or just parking under a shade tree can all help.

I had considered rigging a misting device for my condensor for days like this but got enough relief from tinted film that I lost interest in going further with it.

Reply to
<HLS

dark interiors make it hotter too. takes a while to cool all that stuff down. Its not instantaneous.

Reply to
ed

I typically leave the A/C on fresh air for a minute or two to allow the system to purge the hot air in the passenger compartment before switching to recirculate. Cooling the recirculated hot air inside makes the system work harder than just cooling the air from outside. Once the inside air has cooled some, switching to recirculate later let's the system cool the already cooled air and work easier. For my car, Max A/C is recirculate while just A/C is fresh air.

Reply to
Bruce Chang

MotorsForum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.