Weird (and annoying) A/C Issue
 

Hi guys,

Not sure if I'm the only one experiencing this.

My A/C normally works OK and as expected.

HOWEVER, when the weather is TOO hot outside and my oil temps rise to the 200°F range, the A/C compressor simply starts to act up and shuts down randomly and after a little while turns back on, and shuts off again, and so on.

The A/C fan blowers continue to work, it's the compressor itself that stops functioning. So, when it turns off, the "A/C" it's simply blowing "hot" air, and starts blowing "cool" air again once the compressor turns back on.

It becomes a cycle and ranges between 30 seconds to a full minute until it shuts down again and same for it to turn back on.

It will happen whether I'm driving or in traffic, but it's more common during traffic.

I almost never get oil temps above 195°F because I have an oil cooler installed and I've noticed that as long as I'm there or below that temp, A/C works perfectly.

Any insights on what this might be?

Thanks in advance for your input.

is that a stillen gen3 intake? check a/c line in the vicinity for leaks? :confused:

the compressor does turn on and off normally though...it's not constantly on.

:ugh:

Yes, I do have a Stillen Gen 3 intake, I'll check the line..

I know the compressor does that, but what is not normal is that, when it shuts off, the fans continue to blow air but not "cool" air anymore, but warm or hot.. and when it turns back on, then "cool" air starts blowing again... :wtf:

You Sir are low on R134a, the real question is why. Where is the leak. May be as stated above.

That sucks.... my compressor wont kick on whatsoever:shakes head:

Your coolant temp may be getting too high and trips the AC on high pressure. If it was low on freon, it would shut off quickly at any temp.

It doesn't cost much to pull the charge, pressure test, and refill your AC. I would do that first, just to eliminate the guess work. Then, once you know your AC system is 100% properly charged and leak free, I would look at lowering your coolant temps by a few degrees

Thank you for your suggestions, I will check on this and update.

Too hot.... Everybody got problems... Just kidding. I'm freezing my *** off up here:mad:

How many non-factory heat exchangers have you installed in front of the condenser?

It sounds like it is shutting down because the high side pressure is too high, probably because of intercoolers/oil coolers/etc dumping heat in front of the condenser, preventing it from being able to shed heat like it should. The pressure of R-134a goes up pretty dramatically past about 120 F.

My cars A/C didn't work right when the car got hot, I would work on cooling the car. Your seeing 220 on the street with a oil cooler? Maybe a larger cooler would help? That seems high for a N/A car with a cooler to me.

I only have the oil cooler, nothing else. It is the Z1 34-row oil cooler.


No, not that high. The oil temp. never gets past 200 F. I have the Z1 34-row oil cooler, I think that's as far as I can go on oil cooler, haha..