4agze air con dramas.

MistryGT-Z
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4agze air con dramas.

Postby MistryGT-Z » Wed Mar 06, 2013 10:48 pm

Hi all,

New to the forums. Recently bought a 1989 levin gt-z, photo attached. When I got it the air conditioning didn't work and the previous owned had never had it work. Also it had never been converted to r134 gas or whatever it is.

So i got the conversion and re-gas done today, they told me the compressor is pretty much dead, sourcing a new one which isn't a big drama.

The problem is, i left the air con shop with the air con blasting, the car felt a lot slower on boost, supercharger almost felt non existent. And when i was idling at the lights the car actually stalled, and when i mean stall i mean that it stopped running without me even noticing. Didn't jerk or anything. Then when i stopped at another intersection it did the same, and then it happened as i was driving down the road and was turning right. the car outright just stopped and i lost all power steering and had to slam the breaks on so as to not crash.

It's got me pretty stumped, anyone have any ideas as to what the cause could be?

thanks heaps in advance!

http://i713.photobucket.com/albums/ww13 ... G_3462.jpg

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Red
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Re: 4agze air con dramas.

Postby Red » Thu Mar 07, 2013 9:24 am

Well, personally I would say you were ripped off if the shop did a conversion (even IF it was done correctly, which can mean replacing all the o-rings in the system) and now they say you need a compressor. Especially since conversion often means removing the compressor to drain all the old incompatible oil out of it. A good shop doesn't fill a system until after they have fixed the problems with it.

"the car felt a lot slower on boost, supercharger almost felt non existent. And when i was idling at the lights the car actually stalled"
With no gas in the system, the compressor clutch won't engage, so the compressor will never load the engine. With the compressor on, you lose something like 5hp and yes, that will make a difference in throttle response.

There's also an "Ac idle up" circuit that is supposed to raise the idle speed when the AC is in use. If that isn't working properly, or the main idle wasn't adjusted properly, sure, it would also stall when the compressor engaged. An AC shop might miss this since it isn't strictly speaking an "AC" problem. A good shop would at least know there is an issue.

So on the stalling? It could be they did a gorilla job overtightening the compressor clutch belt. Or that the compressor is binding and putting on too much of a load, they can freeze up if left sitting too long. I'd say the solution is to find a better shop. Start with a NEW (reman) compressor, because an old one may be halfway worn out anyhow. Make sure the new shop knows how to adjust the electrics and idle as well.

R12 conversion to R134a is an "iffy" thing. These cars never had excess AC capacity, and you lose about 5% by converting, so they take longer to cool down and never get quite as cold. The gas? They take about two pounds of gas, that's $100 worth of R-12, no big deal IF the shop does their job and makes sure you have a working system before they fill it. A really good shop will use inert dry nitrogen (the same stuff they fill tires with these days) to purge and pressure test an AC system. The guys who have never heard of this? They're greasemonkeys, not technicians.

And if that upsets any AC techs here...you guys know how many butchers there are working in your business.
-- Original owner, 1985 GT-S

MistryGT-Z
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Re: 4agze air con dramas.

Postby MistryGT-Z » Thu Mar 07, 2013 4:26 pm

Cheers for the reply,

On getting ripped off, I think the boss of the workshop realized that they should have found the compressor fault before doing the whole job, so he said to me that if I can find a working compressor that they will install it and re-gas the system for free.

After my car started stalling I undid my ABV mod and disconnected a random Greddy sensor that sits in line with the radiator piping. And now it seems to have stopped. I'm taking it in to my mates workshop nextweek for a full inspection/service/put it on the dyno. So hopefully any issues will be found.

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Red
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Re: 4agze air con dramas.

Postby Red » Thu Mar 07, 2013 6:33 pm

Wow, now that's a guy who is taking care of business the right way, with that offer.

Disconnected a random sensor? Maybe send them a pic of it and ask what it is? I usually keep my random parts in a tupperware container.<G>
-- Original owner, 1985 GT-S

MistryGT-Z
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Re: 4agze air con dramas.

Postby MistryGT-Z » Thu Mar 07, 2013 9:24 pm

Yeah it's a pretty good offer, but i think it may have to do with the fact that i live in cairns, so businesses up here need to keep their customers.

Found a compressor for $340.

also here's a photo of the sensor i was talking about.

it's blue and on the radiator hose.

cheers.

http://i713.photobucket.com/albums/ww13 ... G_3478.jpg

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Red
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Re: 4agze air con dramas.

Postby Red » Fri Mar 08, 2013 6:48 am

That's a temperature sensor. Could be going to a simple temp gauge, or to a controller. What Greddy equipment is in the car?
-- Original owner, 1985 GT-S

MistryGT-Z
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Re: 4agze air con dramas.

Postby MistryGT-Z » Fri Mar 08, 2013 4:00 pm

There's a cable that the sensor was connected to, goes through the firewall into the back of the dash, but there's no gauges or anything on the dash.

And I've got no other Greddy gear on the car.

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Red
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Re: 4agze air con dramas.

Postby Red » Fri Mar 08, 2013 4:20 pm

Could be they removed whatever it went into, but that wouldn't explain why the car ran differently after you connected it. You're sure that cable doesn't connect to anything inside the cabin??
-- Original owner, 1985 GT-S

MistryGT-Z
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Re: 4agze air con dramas.

Postby MistryGT-Z » Fri Mar 08, 2013 4:45 pm

I'll have to get into the dash to make sure, the other thing though is when I did the abv mod. I disconnected the line from the throttle body, and the diagram said that all that was between the throttle body and the vsv was the vtv, but for some reason on mine there's also a t piece that splits off before the vtv and goes to anther unit on the other side of the engine bay. I capped the throttle body but then that left me with a random hose that went to the other side of the engine bay. None of the diagrams I've seen have this line though.

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Red
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Re: 4agze air con dramas.

Postby Red » Fri Mar 08, 2013 6:11 pm

The manuals have been known to be wrong, even grossly wrong at times. Maybe someone had a third=party engine management system in there and pulled it?
-- Original owner, 1985 GT-S

MistryGT-Z
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Re: 4agze air con dramas.

Postby MistryGT-Z » Fri Mar 08, 2013 6:25 pm

It's a bit of a pain to figure out.

Crownvicman289
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Re: 4agze air con dramas.

Postby Crownvicman289 » Fri Mar 22, 2013 7:44 am

If the compressor is on the verge of locking up, it would make a decent dent in acceleration. They can get a little tight toward the end of their life. If it's tight enough, even your AC idle up solenoid wouldn't be enough to keep it from stalling. It could entirely be the compressor.