The Motor Forum

Pkh72 · Posted: Tue Oct 13, 2009 8:23 am Post subject: Air Con not working

I seem to have an issue with the Air Con in the Focus.
I tried to use it last night, outside temp was 17 so not too cold and i was getting no extra cold air through the vents.
Upon an under bonnet inspection it appears that the fan isn't coming on for it like it normally does, there is normally a click and on it comes.
There are no nasty noises or anything, just a complete lack of air con activation by the look of it.

Any ideas what i can look for, would it likely be a fuse, i know where the fuse for it is but haven't had a look yet, everything else seems fine?

Ideally i'd like to diagnose it before i have to get a stealer involved and start printing my own money.

Mark · Posted: Tue Oct 13, 2009 9:08 am Post subject:

There is a very good chance it will be the clutch for the compressor (or the compressor itself).

When I bought the Jag, I noticed the AC wasn't working - it's the clutch that is not engaging and is a common Jaguar/Ford fault - the gap becomes too large and the solenoid can't pull across to engage.

Around £200 for the bits (new compressor) and £100 labour. Thankfully, I managed to get the money (and more) out of the asking price.

Hope I'm completely wrong in your case and it's just a fuse or something.

Pkh72 · Posted: Tue Oct 13, 2009 10:06 am Post subject:

My car is going in to the dealer on Thursday already so i may get them to investigate whilst it's there, but put off any work until next year.
I'm a bit concerned about the £££ of them having a look and replacing stuff unneccesarily.

ALF · Posted: Tue Oct 13, 2009 2:16 pm Post subject:

Could be all sorts. My GTA had a fan that ran the whole time the air con was on, but the fact this was not working didn't necessarily mean the fan was the cause of the air con not working. I spent a lot of time looking into it and electronics like pollution sensors and the climate ECU were fairly common causes, but the most common was a hole in a pipe causing the system to decompress. You may be better off with an aircon specialist than a dealer...