AU Air Con

[RIPGMH]

The air-con in my AU2 will work fine for weeks, then all of a sudden just die and start pumping out warm air. Turn the car off and it might return to normal straight away or sometimes it takes an hour or so. Any ideas?

[philstoj]

Get the TX valve in the main fill up line replaced, as it could be blocked, this happened to mine, same symptoms as yours till it just blew hot air.

This is common problem with these air con systems with that type of compressor.

The valve i replaced was covered in metal bits from the compressor.

You will need an aircon guy to recover your air con gas, replace the valve, and then put your gas back in. All up around $180 or so.

[RIPGMH]

Originally Posted by philstoj

Get the TX valve in the main fill up line replaced, as it could be blocked, this happened to mine, same symptoms as yours till it just blew hot air.

This is common problem with these air con systems with that type of compressor.

The valve i replaced was covered in metal bits from the compressor.

You will need an aircon guy to recover your air con gas, replace the valve, and then put your gas back in. All up around $180 or so.

What causes the intermittent cool air?

[philstoj]

Originally Posted by RIPGMH

What causes the intermittent cool air?

Its probably not blocked all the way.
Mine did the same thing, worked for a bit, then blew hot air, and kept doing, everytime you fired it up, cool air, but then it went hot air.
I was told that it would be the TX valve, and after i changed it, all fixed.
Doesnt hurt to suss out the system though, plug in a code reader, see what codes it shows up, i did that, and one code was for ac system.

[kenz]

At least your AU has an air-con :lookedat:

[philstoj]

Originally Posted by kenz

At least your AU has an air-con :lookedat:

LOL, someone forgot to tick the AC option on yours!! :

[kenz]

Originally Posted by philstoj

LOL, someone forgot to tick the AC option on yours!! :

Unfortunately yes they did and if I get my hands on them arghhhh I cant understand why they didnt want it, its only Qld afterall it never gets hot here

[philstoj]

Originally Posted by kenz

Unfortunately yes they did and if I get my hands on them arghhhh I cant understand why they didnt want it, its only Qld afterall it never gets hot here

LOL, company car, and $2500 option..

[scorpio39]

Originally Posted by kenz

At least your AU has an air-con :lookedat:

My AU experienced the problem of blowing hot air,so I had it re-gassed
The air-con people told me I needed to replaced the heater valve on the heater hose because it was not shutting off completly allowing both a mixture of hot & cold air to circulate
On inspection of the heater valve it was not working because it requires vacuum to shut off the heater valve.
I suspect the vacuum hose behind the temperature switch on the dash has come off.
A temporary way of shutting off the heater valve is to tie it closed with wire until the vacuum leak can be found.
If the above is the cause, doing this will allow the air con to work as normal.

[RIPGMH]

Is it still an option on BA's? I live in north west QLD so I've never seen a car under 20 yo than didn't come standard with air con.

[bodes-sh]

don't know about ba's, but bf sedans (and probably wagons) it is standard, utes is an option tho

[Crash Lander]

Is a TX valve also known as an orifice valve? My a/c wasn't cold at all, and I took it to amechanic, and the pipe that runs along the top of the wheel arch was too hot to touch until a certain point, then icy cold from this certain point on. He said it was caused by a blocked orifice valve. Replaced it and re-gassed it, fo about $140 and my a/c temp went from 24 to about 12-14. Still gets bloody hot at that point in the pipe now, but at least it's cooler in the car. i still don't believe it's quite as cold as it should be, but it's a hell of a lot better than it was. The gy showed me the old valve he pulled out, which to me looked more like a filter than a valve, but it was completely black, and all gunked up.

[philstoj]

Originally Posted by Crash Lander

Is a TX valve also known as an orifice valve? My a/c wasn't cold at all, and I took it to amechanic, and the pipe that runs along the top of the wheel arch was too hot to touch until a certain point, then icy cold from this certain point on. He said it was caused by a blocked orifice valve. Replaced it and re-gassed it, fo about $140 and my a/c temp went from 24 to about 12-14. Still gets bloody hot at that point in the pipe now, but at least it's cooler in the car. i still don't believe it's quite as cold as it should be, but it's a hell of a lot better than it was. The gy showed me the old valve he pulled out, which to me looked more like a filter than a valve, but it was completely black, and all gunked up.

Yes thats the one, the orifice valve.From memory its aclled a TX valve aswell.
At the Start, mine wasnt as cold as it was, but it got much better.

[RIPGMH]

Mine will be so cold I have to turn it down one minute and the next I'm winding the windows down because its spitting hot air at me.

[Glend]

We had trouble once with our climate control on our AU2, we got some help from someone on this forum that fixed the problem and saved us $700 as Ford dealer said that blender motor needed replacing. What we were told to do: On a regular basis you need to re set you climate control, how you do it is;
Turn off engine, turn ignition on to accessories to the point where the climate control comes on. Press the off button on the climate control. then press as the same time the off button and the mode selector button (the opposite end to the off buttons in the row of 6 buttons). Hold these two buttons down for at least 15 seconds untill the display panel is lit up and you hear some whirring noises from under the the dash. This is now re setting and ready to use again. It was recomended to us to do this regulary and we do this once a week. You may notice it sometimes it does it by itself when you turn your ignition on. Since weve been doing this weve not had any more hot air blowing through.

[whiskers]

just been reading thee posts here, I have had and are still having similar probs (as in not much air comming out), with my air conditioner the tx valve has been replaced and re-gassed, but, I have taken the car to an aircon bloke who has told me that the "heat exchanger" up behind the dash gets clogged with the dust from either inside the car or from the outside depending on whether you have selected the recirc or air from outside. and that the only way to fix it was to replace at a cost of approx$700. this maybe the same thing happening to you, I was told how to fix it temporarily though, if you can get an air compressor with a long dust blower pipe take the glove box out and look up to your right you should see the heat exchanger give it a good blowing out. hope this helps out.