97 S70 Air conditioning in Australia

Greetings Brains Trust

My wife has a 97 S70 (though you could argue that it is in fact a 1998,
but...) and it has air-con dual climate control system that is being odd.
Fuses good, no nasty sounds, and yes, dials set to 18 or lower! However,
there was an odd sound behind the dash of some dullish clunking that is now
not present. I'm wondering if it is the same sound that other posters have
enquired about?

In short, the weather where we are now has been considerably hotter than we
have been used to and it seems the Ovlov doesn't like it either. It (A/C)
will run great, nice and cold for a few minutes, and then cease cooling.
The lights tells me that it (A/C) is still on, but the temp of the air
coming out of the vents is getting warmer and has that smell of "the air con
has been turned off". Then after a bit, it enters into a cycle of cool air,
then back to no air con.

Is this a trait of European vehicles and hot Australian summers, or is it
that the gas needs a top up, or something else? Others I know with
European cars have said that their machines have similar problems with
struggling to keep cool in the heat, but not cycling like ours.

In the BA Falcon (Australian model), there is not this problem, but it
doesn't have climate control. In fact, my only experience of air con not
working is the obvious, i.e. it just doesn't blow cool air.

Any ideas?

Kind regards

Hamish.

 

Generally low gas leads to fast cycling, which results in poor cooling,
not cold then hot. The fuel (yes fuel) computer will shut off the A/C
if the high side (condenser) pressure gets too high. The most common
cause of this is the electric fan not working properly or the path for
air through the condenser is partially blocked with leaves, or
whatever. The fuel computer will also shut off the A/C if the coolant
temperature gets too high.
Also there is a temperature sensor on the back of the compressor that
turns it off if it gets too hot. These sensors are problematic, and
this can be bypassed.

--
Mike F.
Thornhill (near Toronto), Ont.

NOTE: new address!!
Replace tt with t (twice!) and remove parentheses to email me directly.
(But I check the newsgroup more often than this email address.)

 

Mike F is the expert- but two things- is the rad fan running and is it able
to pull plenty of air in through the condensor- cardboard or leaves
blockiing it???

Secondly the compressor has an over heat cut out switch on its back side
which are prone to failing. they can be replaced or just bypassed...

tim..

 

The clunking suggests you need to add coolant.