A/C repair for a 98 Explorer

From the little you told us there is no way to even speculate. It could be anything from a blown fuse to a stuck blend door (a common problem in this vintage), to a leak somewhere. Perhaps even, as you suggested, a dead compressor, though that's quite unlikely with only 67K miles... One thing is certain: adding Freon definitely WON'T solve the problem. Your Explorer doesn't even use Freon -- it uses a compound known as R134a. And you don't just blindly add it - you can do more harm than good that way, including injuring yourself. If you want to offer the fine people on this NG a clue, at least check if the compressor clutch is engaging (you will hear a click and see the hub rotating together with the pulley).

Hope that yours is a minor problem!!!

I would like to add if you do hear the a/c clutch engage, then feel if the evaporator is getting cold. The evaporator is the cylindrical object located on the passengers side in the engine compartment. If the evaporator is cold, then that tells me the A/C is working, but the blend door is stuck.

Thanks for replying.

Yes, the clutch engages, but the evaporator is not cold when I touch it.

Does this mean an expensive repair bill?

As you can imagine, I kinda new to cars and I hear stories of people paying

6 figures for an A/C bill when their car has 55K on the odometer. So I'm trying to gather as much info as possible before taking the Explorer in for repair.

ed.

That part is the accumulator/dryer, not the evaporator (which you can't touch, because it's inside the plenum assembly). But if the clutch engages, at least you have some charge in the system. Does it cycle on and off really fast (like every second or two), or stays on for a while?

Need to make a correction: in your vehicle the evaporator is in a separate housing, in the engine compartment. You will see it bolted to the firewall on the pasenger side, right behind the accumulator and next to the blower. There may be a heat insulating wrapping around the housing. Well, knowing what the various A/C system parts are called does not help you much... Hopefully the experts will jump in with some good advice. But first check how fast that clutch is cycling...

Take it to a shop that does A/C work. Let the pros hook up a gauge to it to see whats really wrong. That's the only way your really going to find the problem. It might be a simple problem.

Worst case scenario would be around $1200 for repairs as a ballpark guess. Best case would be perhaps $150 if it's just got an easy to fix leak and needs freon added.