I have an A/C problem that apparently hasn't been reported before. Has anyone experienced the following?



The A/C blows cold air initially, but the air gets less and less cold as I drive. It seems not as cold as it initially was after about 30 miles, and continues to go south from there. After 60 or so miles I'm still somewhat comfortable, but only because I have all vents directed at my torso. By 100 miles the cabin may be as warm as the ambient air outside. The air that the A/C blows never gets as warm as the outside air, so I prefer to have it blowing on me than the outside air, but I do have the fan near maximum by the time I've driven 100 miles. Hitting the recirculate button doesn't seem to help for long. The dealer said it tests fine after 5 miles. Of course, I agree with that. They advise to use recirculate all the time, but that doesn't do much good.



The only A/C problem reports I've found here are low on refrigerant (3 cases), bad schrader valve, hose clogged, condensor gasket misaligned, and small leak in evaporator and condensor. But none of these cases were characterized as following the gradual loss of cold air over the miles form. Any Ideas for me to take to the dealer next week?

Time for dealer service. It is probably low coolant caused by ?

Tell the dealer to fix it. It's not your responsibility to diagnose the root cause of the problem, it's the dealers! The aircon should blow cold. Period.


Don't let the dealer fob you off that it works okay for 5 miles. The problem you're having is the aircon doesn't work properly after 100 miles. It should work fine and blow cold air.


Recirculating the air all the time is bad.

I have exactly this same problem. Playing with the settings--lowering temp, recirculate--helps for a bit, then the thing goes back to being just better than tepid.

Thanks. Next week I'll request some diagnostic work instead of just a short test drive (but I did tell them that it always starts out blowing cold air). I'll also give them my list of previously reported sources of A/C problems. I know he checked the air flow temperature last time because he left his thermometer sticking in the dash air vent, and his Snap-On screw driver in the trunk. rsgl: I'll post whatever they find; maybe your problem has the same source.

Jim,





I also have the same problem. I found that if I move it to Max for a minute and then back, the air is cold again. I too had it checked at the dealer with no results .

You good fellas shouldn't have to play with anything to get nice consistant cold air. We are in the tropical 90 and I have perfect cold air all the time.



Something has caused a loss of coolant and it should be taken care of without question.



FWIW Russ

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Jim


I assume you've got the standard AC, not ACC. Your symptoms donot sound like a coolant level issue, but rather an electronic air mixing, sensoror thermostatproblem. Perhaps an overheating component. Computer diagnostic testing should pinpoint any problems in those areas. Let us know.

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Dan

I'll be pursuing this with the dealer too. Yes, mine is the standard AC, not 'climate control'. Yes, if you play with the temp setting you can sometimes get a cold response. My guess was also that the fault is in the control system. I'll report any progress. I did bring it up before with the dealer, and they got the thermometer out and found it made cold air, and that was the end of their concern.

Rick: You're right. I had the opportunity to try your one-minute-on-max trick and, sure enough, the cold air returned when I went back to normal A/C.



Dan: Yes, I have the manual A/C, and I think you and rsgl are correct about the problem being somewhere in the control system, rather than with the coolant level; otherwise I couldn't get cold air anytime.



Thanks for your inputs.

Jim, the manual A/C may well indeed have a control malfunction. Best of luck. I have the coldest air with my auto A/C that I ever had in a car so your expectations should be very high.

Great info in this thread, this just happened to me this weekend and I couldn't figure out what happened b/c it had been SO cold before. I will have to do the one-min-max trick thanks.

YLW GATR: Going to Max for a minute and then back to normal, did return the cold air, but it only lasts for another cycle of going from cold to tepid. On a 125-mile trip back from an autox yesterday I went to Max 3 times during the trip in order to stay comfortable in 85-degree weather. Also, when going to Max, the air remained tepid, but returned to cold once I went back to normal A/C.



I talked to the service manager at my Porsche dealer about this this morning. I gave him some info posted here, including the one-minute-at-Max trick. He agreed that it must be a control problem, because they checked the refrigerant level last time. He siad that he would search his sources for a red flag on this problem, and give me a call.

Update; car was taken in for AC check and it was reported to me that leaks were found at a couple of o-ring-sealed points in the system. Said o-rings were reported to have been replaced and the system recharged.



AC operates differently now; the cold-production is consistent over time. It is sufficiently cold too, though I still feel it could be colder.



So; get your system checked for charge and leaks.....



Rob