A3 VW 2.0 A/C blows hot and cold

I have a problem with my A/C somewhere on a 95 VW Golf 2.0 with about

158000 miles. I took it into a Firestone dealer to get the refrigerant recharged and of course they said everything and its mother was broken. I ended up replacing the radiator fan (and belt) and the expansion valve. Of course there is still a problem, what happens now is that sometimes the A/C blows cold, other times it just blows outside temp. air. Given that the A/C should be fully charged (there were no leaks according to Firestone, I used the dye) and the radiator fan and the expansion valve work, the only thing that I can think of is that either me compressor fails intermittently, which I doubt, or maybe the A/C cut-out switch has failed. I would REALLY like to get my A/C working without wasting any more money than I already have (thanks again to the honest thieves at Firestone) because it gets pretty hot in Florida. So any help would appreciated, hopefully someone's had this problem before or might know something about it.
Reply to
VWMan
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Does it tend to turn hot if you are accelerating hard or driving very fast, and then return to normal when you are at a steady speed or slowing down?

Reply to
Joseph Meehan

It's a 2.0L....it isn't capable of going very fast! LOL

- Peter

Reply to
Pete Cressman

Does that mean there are other thieves besides dealer. I bet you would have paid less at the dealer? I need to know if the compressor is still running when it ain't cold? look to see if the center of the clutch is turning.

Reply to
Woodchuck

I would suspect a relay somewhere. I had the same/similar problem with my 91 Passat. It was one of the relays in the engine compartment. I found out which relay when I was troubleshooting my AT shifting problem. No a/c and no a/c light coming on in the switch. Of course I also had a problem with the blower relay on the inside of the Passat, but that is another story. ;-)

Try jumping the positive side of the compressor to see if the a/c starts cooling. Yes hook a positive wire up to the correct compressor wire to see if the compressor starts functioning.

later, dave Reminder........ Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way, when you criticize them, you are a mile away from them, and you have their shoes. Frieda Norris

Reply to
dave

I had a problem like that. Check the 2 wire temperature sensor coming out of the head. This cuts the a/c if the coolant temp gets too high. You can jumper the connector with a paper clip and drive around for a few days and see what happens. If the a/c works correctly, replace the temp sensor (~$12, iirc). This is, of course, assuming that your car isn't overheating.

--Andy

Reply to
Andrew

Thanks for all of your help, my compressor died on me about a day after I posted my message. The compressor clutch locked up and stalled my car, and after getting it to run for about 30 seconds my engine compartment filled with smoke from the clutch. On that note I was hoping that I could get a serpentine belt for a Golf that doesn't have A/C and bypass the compressor, anyone know if doing something like that is possible?

As for the dealer, thanks to Firestone I'm now out $400 on unnecessary repairs since they misdiagnosed my car. Dealer list price for a new compressor is $800, so if I can't get a belt that will bypass the compressor then I'm in the market for a new car.

"Andrew" wrote in news:FoSEc.416681$ snipped-for-privacy@twister.nyroc.rr.com:

Reply to
VWMan

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