[Midlife]

During the last episode of MaggotWaggon In Distress, I went to an A/C diagnostic place, which stated the compressor was weak and that a good $800 would fix everything.

Today, while driving around doing errands, I passed another A/C shop, and decided to get a second opinion. They gave me an additional pound of R134a, and that still didn't do the trick, after taking a road test. The mechanic started thinking about other problems, and we discussed the blend door. Hmmm. He had me adjust the temperature control to find the motor/device that adjusts the door, and discovered it wasn't really closing fully in the full cold position! However, we could manually close the door, and lo and behold! the air became about 30* colder. Apparently the cable is either stretched or the housings are damaged, so that the controls don't fully work. We'd need to take the dash apart and replace a bunch of parts....

or....

Manually set the motor device to full close blend door and not adjust the temperature control. Sounded good to me! Total cost for R134 and diagnosis? $50. Continued on my errands, and the car is quite cool and comfortable. Whew. Dodged a bullet there. I love them shade-tree fixes!

 

[Huskinhano]

Glad to hear the fix was relatively simple and cheap. I love it at work when people call me because of an electrical problem, only to find the device UNPLUGGED! *G*

 

[autoxsteve]

You should not trick us by referring to the maggotwagon as a Honda. That was it's previous state/forums/images/icons/smile.gif.

Additionally, your A/C fix is interesting. Back when I was a relatively newly hired engineer, some of the more 'senior' engineers tried to send me on a hunt for a cable stretcher. Did you use one on your temp control cable? Maybe they do [email protected]?

 

[roadracer]

That is really great news Midlife.

I wonder how many others have had the same problem.

 

[Gene_J]

But teh scary part is that the place that was going to charge you 800 bucks is still in business! Do you think they really did a complete diagnostic?

Or figured that if they replaced everything they just might hit on the problem. Are you going to ever go back there???

 

[bluefinger]

I just discovered a similar problem in my brother's Ford Ranger, I put the gauges on, added a little r134a with no results. Then my brother told me that sometimes when he pushes in the clutch it switches from Max to defrost by itself. I got to thinking and realized that there must be a vacuum leak somewhere since the temp control and defrost doors are all vacuum actuated. Sure enough, there wasn't enough vacuum to hold the temp door all the way open and the defrost door tended to bounce. I tie wrapped the doors in the correct position until we have time to tear the dash apart to find the vacumm leak.

 

[Midlife]

Gene: I talked to the head guy at the place I went to today, and he told me some horror stories from the previous A/C place. Nope, not going back there again! That's why second opinions are sometimes good to have. I've had real bad luck with A/C and radiator shops, the latter telling me I need a head gasket replacement when I don't.

BTW, it was the heat control valve that isn't closing all the way, so hot water was still creeping into the plenum.

 

[GypsyR]

Congratulations on finding a "real" mechanic instead of the widely more common part-swappers. A rare find these days.
So the maggot wagon is now cool? Well, in a manner of speaking.