Shadow2015
New member
Oh boy, so I had an issue with my A/C not working. It was just hot air coming out. I bought a Groupon and went to get a recharge, half-knowing deep down that it would be something else wrong. Welp, this shop tried to tell me my compressor's clutch wasn't working and it needed to be replaced.
So, I agreed to have them do the job after raising the $650 it would cost (which I hear is on the cheaper end). They get the new compressor in, and it won't work. Now there was no power going to it at all apparently.
I bring my car back there for a 3rd day in a row to have them look at it and they eventually give up, put my old compressor back in, and then tell me that my entire HVAC control module is not working and it would be about $3,000 to replace that. I'm like.....yeeeeeah...I'll get another opinion. EVERYTHING else was working fine: seat warmers, heat, speed control, lights were all on, etc, so I really didn't think my module was bad.
Well, I try another mechanic and they diagnose a bad ambient air temp sensor from my right front side pretty quickly. I had had an accident to that side 6 months prior and they told me the area was still kinda messed up under there (thanks Progressive lol). Well, they put the sensor in and guess what?! Still nothing.
Well now this shop is stumped, but they didn't give up. They tested all the signals and everything was working separately, just not all together. On my way home from the shop that day, I noticed a temp gauge on my audio screen I don't remember seeing before, but it was jumping all over. First 28 degrees, then -39 degrees, then 80, then nothing. I let my mechanic know and he explained that if the sensor reads -39 degrees, it means it's not getting information to it correctly. He said if I had tried my A/C when it read 80 degrees, it likely would've worked. So then he thinks there is a weak wire somewhere.
I bring it back for day 5 of figuring this out and they also replace the AC Evaporator sensor to make sure that's not throwing off the temp, and then we got it to show a temp more frequently on the screen, but it was not correct and still fluctuating.
Finally, it turns out that the harness with all the wiring has a sub harness just for the Ambient Air sensor. They decided to bypass that since it simply acts like an extension chord, and moved my air sensor closer to the main harness.
Everything started working after that! Compressor was fine, module was fine, sensors were reading great, and that sub harness is useless haha!
So, I agreed to have them do the job after raising the $650 it would cost (which I hear is on the cheaper end). They get the new compressor in, and it won't work. Now there was no power going to it at all apparently.
I bring my car back there for a 3rd day in a row to have them look at it and they eventually give up, put my old compressor back in, and then tell me that my entire HVAC control module is not working and it would be about $3,000 to replace that. I'm like.....yeeeeeah...I'll get another opinion. EVERYTHING else was working fine: seat warmers, heat, speed control, lights were all on, etc, so I really didn't think my module was bad.
Well, I try another mechanic and they diagnose a bad ambient air temp sensor from my right front side pretty quickly. I had had an accident to that side 6 months prior and they told me the area was still kinda messed up under there (thanks Progressive lol). Well, they put the sensor in and guess what?! Still nothing.
Well now this shop is stumped, but they didn't give up. They tested all the signals and everything was working separately, just not all together. On my way home from the shop that day, I noticed a temp gauge on my audio screen I don't remember seeing before, but it was jumping all over. First 28 degrees, then -39 degrees, then 80, then nothing. I let my mechanic know and he explained that if the sensor reads -39 degrees, it means it's not getting information to it correctly. He said if I had tried my A/C when it read 80 degrees, it likely would've worked. So then he thinks there is a weak wire somewhere.
I bring it back for day 5 of figuring this out and they also replace the AC Evaporator sensor to make sure that's not throwing off the temp, and then we got it to show a temp more frequently on the screen, but it was not correct and still fluctuating.
Finally, it turns out that the harness with all the wiring has a sub harness just for the Ambient Air sensor. They decided to bypass that since it simply acts like an extension chord, and moved my air sensor closer to the main harness.
Everything started working after that! Compressor was fine, module was fine, sensors were reading great, and that sub harness is useless haha!
