Hello,

I have had my my crossfire for two years now. I bought it at 115k and it has 150 now. Just recently moved to Florida so decided to fix my AC!!! I am having trouble with this. Bought a new compressor and a mechanic charged me 180 to install it plus the ac recharge. Went to pick up the car and told me my fan was bad because it wasn't kicking in right away as well as a bad water/heater control valve.

ok, ordered these two parts and took it right back to him. 80 dollars in labor for him to install my fan and the new valve i got off eBay for 30 bucks. When he called me to pick up the car, i first talked to him. He told me the water control valve i ordered seem like it had work done to it but it was better then the one i had and he installed it and it was blowing cold air. He said he had tested it out for at least 30 minutes and the ac was fine. So i get to the car and drive away and 4 blocks later the ac starts blowing hot air again. No more ac.

I called him and he had left already so he told me to bring the car in the next day.
Next day comes and he told me the valve might be bad and he recommended to get a brand new one from the dealer and not a used one. he said these valves tend to lose pressure or idk he just basically told me to get brand new one. A brand new one is 240 requesting it from the slk320 because Chrysler dealer is asking for 300 for a new valve.

I have already spent at least 570 dollars between a new compressor, a cooling fan, 30 dollar valve from eBay and labor. Ebay has many more water control valves, should i try another used one? get a brand new one for over 200 dollars? or is something else the problem????? I would highly appreciate any feedback or similar problems anyone else has had. Thank you...........

 

My first thought, get a pair of pinch-off pliers and stop the flow of hot coolant to the heater core and see if that solves your problem.

 

willl try that tomorrow......thank you

 

You need to pinch off the single hose coming out of the dual heater valve controls. This will simulate the valves as closed. Actually the coolant is flowing through the heater core first, then through the valves, boost pump, then back to the water pump/engine.


These valves are generally normal open. They require voltage to close them.

 

The mechanic did send voltage to the one he had taken off and explained to me how they are suppose to be open and closed. he said that they just wont work the same after they are used. i dont know if that makes sense or not but he strongly recommended me to get a brand new one.

I will try that tomorrow tho.....the car should be running with the ac on while i do this right??

 

Once you have the hose closed off, I would drive it a while with the AC on and see what happens. If the AC works well, then stop and remove the pliers and continue driving and see if the air gets hot again.

 

if air does get hot again?? what would that mean? a bad water/ heater control valve?

 

Either bad valves, or they are not being energized to make them close.

 

Not sure if this applies but had an issue of no A/C and only hot air blowing regardless of whether the heater control dials were set to blue or red. Took the silver caps off the valves right behind the coolant tank cleaned and then sprayed them with WD40 and everything worked great.

 

i have read another forum where cleaning the valves right behind the coolant tank has worked.

im gonna try this as well....hopefully it works. It seems so simple that is hard to believe thats the problem.

 

Could well be. Contrary to what one would think, those 2 valves are ACTIVATED to STOP the hot water flow. If you unplug them, then you have a full time heater.

 

i just took the valve apart and cleaned it inside very well...

removed the gunk inside and cleaned it with wd40..

put everything back together and turned the car on as well as the ac.

my ac certainly did start blowing cold. I thought i had fixed it. but within 10 minutes is no back to blowing hot air again

ac compressor is working fine, my cooling fan is working fine, my ac is charged becuase i feel the ac line cold.....could it be a leak???? the water control valve is bad??? but why did it blow cold for 10 min.......should i get an original one? try my luck with another used one or go to the dealer!!!!!????? ahhhhh

 

You asked for advice, it is given and you ignore it. Keep wasting your time...
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i didnt ignore it....i will try that tomorrow james1549....today i didnt get my hands on pinch off pliers...i will do that tomorrow first thing and keep u updated.

but can u clarify what i should do again please...pinch off the single hose coming off the water/heater valve? located behind the coolant tank or the one going to the heater core?

i get what you are saying about the valves being open all the time. I hope it is being energized so they can close or else i would have an electrical problem.

 

by the way i do have a bad blower resistor motor but i dont think that should affect anything? i just deal with it, it ddoes blow air out so it is not that important to me right now to fix the blower resistor.....i just hope it is not affecting my ac problem.

 

Invest $60 in an AC manifold pressure device from Harbor Freight and check your Hi side and Lo side pressures. If your Lo side, charge port is too high, you will push warm air. It is easy to overcharge the system. The Lo should read 130 or a little below if I remember correctly. If you have a %20 off coupon it will come to under $50. I had this problem, bought this, fixed it and now works fine. It's human nature to complicate simple things.

 

If the Low side is 130 when the compressor is engaged, you have a problem.

First off weather conditions will alter the pressures to some degree. Typically, Low side should run 40-50, High side 250-275 as a guide line. Systems can vary.

 

i havent really been doing anything because i have been kinda busy......but when i first turn on the car in the morning the ac does come out cold.

happens every time i first turn on the car or when it is not fully warmed. after about 10 min it gets hot again, so i guess the coolant gets hot and it starts blowing hot air. juss wanted to put that out there just in case its something somene might know.

i am going to invest in the ac manifold pressure thing to check the pressure out and i will stop the coolant from going to the core with the pliers...juss been busy......appreciate any help thanks

 

Ok, my memory failed me, I'm 68, it happens. Your low side (charge port) should be about 38 to 44 depending on temp, the higher the ambient temp, the higher the pressure. The high side port ( behind the grill on drivers side) should be between 200 and 320. Good luck with it.

 

Sounds to me like the A/C is fine and the issue is hot coolant circulating thru the heater core when you don't want it to.

You can prove this with the technique James suggested.