My beloved movable chair, the 96 S 420 in the garage, has done it to me again! Took it to ole smilin sam who replaced the leaky evaporator. Since that replacement, the cooling stops after driving for 90 to 120 minutes. Turning the compressor off lets things melt or cool down or something and the ac will work again after 15 to 30 minutes go by. Suggestions included low freon (or that new stuff that does good things to the atmosphere when it leaks out) or a bad or missing or improperly reinstalled evaporation temp sensor. So Ole Smilin Sam checked the fluid and found it 0.5 lbs low. He thinks that may have been causing the problem. But that would not explain why ac screwed up the first time I drove it anywhere after the new evaporator was put in - trip took place within a week or so of the repair. I asked Smiling Sam about the temp switch, but he ignored the question. He says that something is probably heating up. And ole growly cookie monster who runs the office suggests that it could be the temp control switch. They did have to keep it a second day, so perhaps they did go in on the left lower side of the dash behind the gas pedal to fix the evap temp sensor, but I think they would have mentioned that.
So now my question is - can any of these things be tested?
If so, I may consider visiting Heavy Carl, the local stealership. They will charge at least $100 to test anything, of course, and then minimum $1000 to repair it. But this may be cheaper to do than to buy the current 5.5 gas eater version of the new computerized S Klass. And if I can't get the thing fixed, I will have to buy a different car before April, probably a used Kudzu Kar cause the new Kudzu Kar is koming out this fall.
mcbrue warminguply under the bridge in the trailer down by the river
96 S420