2001 5.3L ext. cab LS+ Silverado w/ 20k miles
>
> It was over 95 out yesterday, and I was driving about 15 miles in July 3rd
> traffic, lot of start and stop. The air conditioning worked great for maybe
> the first 15 minutes or so. Then it kind of crapped out. Seemed like it
> was just blowing normal air with only slight cooling. Internal
temperature
shot up to the 90's for the few minutes. Then maybe four minutes later, the
> A/C went active again, and cooled great. This happened twice on that trip,
> although not on the return, for some reason. Traffic had diminished, so I
> wasn't on the road as long.
>
> On a related note, the A/C will periodically kick out a slight hissing sound
> for a few seconds, kinda like pressure equalizing. Hard to measure, but it
> seems to happen every five or ten minutes normally with A/C running. I'd
> swear I heard that sound when it died the second time, but it was hard to > tell.
>
> On another related note, sometimes when I have the A/C running at engine
> shut off, and have it on immediately after ignition later, the engine will
> howl like a banshee for the first few minutes of driving. Definitely an
> abnormal engine sound. No clunking or anything, just a somewhat mid
> frequency howl over and paralleling the normal engine sounds
Sounds like your serpentine belt may be slipping. Check to see if the tensioner is working properly and the belt to see if it's glazed. That would explain the intermittent operation.
Dave
Dunno what.
the hell that's from, or whether it's related. Never thought it was a huge
> problem.
>
> I've heard of the intermittent cooling loss problem with the 2003's
> resulting from a bad pressure sensor or something. Seems like it's either a
> nearly arbitrary switch, or maybe outside temp related, or coolant level
> just low enough to trip the sensor sometimes. But when it runs, it cools
> like a charm. Very impressive A/C system, so I'm not sure it's a simple > leak.
>
> The dealership wants $60 for an A/C check. That seems obnoxious given that
> the problem wouldn't occur during their check, almost certainly. I'm still
> under the standard warranty.
>
> If you've read this far, thanks. What are my options? Any ideas what the
> problem(s) might be? Please respond to group; email's bogus.
>
>