More A/C Woes

[jpinvictus]

I could use some ideas.

I recently fixed an A/C leak in my 97 vr4 with ACC, replaced the evaporator, drier, and expansion valve, new o-rings, etc. Had it professionally leak tested and it cleared. Ice cold air. Woohoo!

2 weeks later, the temperature in Louisiana is at 95 degrees and sunny as hell, and my A/C is blowing somewhat cool while in motion, and barely cool at all while idling. I thought maybe I didn't get the leak, and it was just super slow, which is why it passed the leak test. I decided to pay a shop $20 to hook the gauges up in hopes that maybe they'd see something I missed.
Gauges said my pressure is still perfect! Unfortunately it was only 70 degrees outside and rainy, so I couldn't replicate my issue while there, which brings me to the next part:

I've noticed if the temperature outside is below 80, my whole car is ice cold. The a/c works amazing, I have to turn it off or I freeze. But when its 90 degrees out, it's shit. I get out and I'm drenched in sweat. Oddly enough, the heat from the sun seems to affect it in a noticeable way. If it's 85 and overcast, my air blows significantly cooler than 85 and sunny, it is so noticeable that if I ride down a shady road for 5 minutes the air is noticeably cooler.


It's much worse at idle/low rpm ranges.
The condenser fan is working, and by that I mean when I turn the ac on, both fans kick on and blow fast enough that it'd hurt my fingers to try and grab them.

My biggest suspicion right now is the belt. I just recently started getting some belt squeel when I turn my a/c on in 1st and 2nd gear, would that produce these kind of symptoms? Should I be looking somewhere else first?

I don't know what to do next to diagnose it. Where do I go from here? The a/c shops around here are not too great, I don't really trust them, so I'd like to figure this out for myself.

[RealMcCoy]

What model car? manual A/C or auto climate control?

[jpinvictus]

97 vr4 auto climate control. I'll update the original with this info too

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[RealMcCoy]

A set of gauges would be optimal, but you can probably figure it out without them...

You are definitely not getting a lock controller warning on the display?

I'd check the sight glass when it's operating and see if it looks like it has a sufficient charge... Pressures can be deceiving sometimes with an expansion valve system.

You could check for codes in the HVAC controller.

Check the photo sensor and see if it's registering sun load.

There is a very long chapter in the repair manual on the service and diagnostics of the climate control... Pretty much anything you would want to know is in there. I'd start there.

[jpinvictus]

Well I have easy access to gauges, so that won't be an issue!

The lock controller warning would be the red dot on the acc display, right? If so, nope, my acc display shows no warnings.

I'll definitely look into reading the hvac codes, but how would I check about registering sun load? I wasn't even aware that was a thing.

I've read some of the manual, and definitely plan on reading more, just wanted a place to start, which you've definitely helped out with!

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[RealMcCoy]

The optical sensor is in the passenger defroster vent... It outputs a small voltage when the light gets over a certain level. There are specs and test procedure in the manual.

[new93TT]

you fix the belt yet? how is it after that?

[akotten]

Can I ask where you got your parts to fix the leaks?


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