I was sitting there with the car idling and the ac on low, and it suddenly vented all its refrigerant out of what looks like a purge valve on top of the compressor. the car has been running a little hotter lately, other than that, what could have caused it?
AC system purged itself!
- Thread starter svtdriven
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Too much head pressure will cause it to blow off some pressure. My dad's 93 Lightning did the same thing one day. He bought the truck new and the a/c has never been worked on. The A/C still blows cold to this day though and we never have had to add any R12 to the sytem.
Yep, Daryl is exactly right. There is no high pressure cut off switch, just a simple pop off valve that vents to the atmosphere when pressure is too high.
In my case, it was lack of airflow (electric fan didn't come on). Other things can cause it, but that was my particular problem. It may or may not cause your system to work badly. It took a can and a half of R12 to get my system back up to speed...
In my case, it was lack of airflow (electric fan didn't come on). Other things can cause it, but that was my particular problem. It may or may not cause your system to work badly. It took a can and a half of R12 to get my system back up to speed...
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That is what exactly happened to me. My old electric fan setup didn't come on and psst.
i checked it today, still blows cold. I guess I'm alright for now. I should check the fan next chance I get. I have an electric taurus fan thats hard wired to be on when the car is on.
The main reason the a/c purged it self was the high side of the a/c system reached about 450psi,thats when the pop off valve opens. Its real simple like what was said lack of air flow. I saw you said you have electric Taurus fans wired to come on when the car is turned on, this is a bad thing because it takes the car to long to reach operating temp, excessive amp draw from the batteries, get a black magic fan with the temp probe. For those of you using a fan clutch,you will need to change the fan clutch. Ill never under stand why people change the clutch fan set up to an electric fan setup Ford spends millions of dollars to design these cars. To each his own i guess. Any way thats whats going on with the a/c system. It would be a bad idea to blow air between the radiator and condensor either to clear out alot of dust and leaves that build up in between them ;-)
DO NOT get a Black Magic fan to replace the Taurus fan. You will DEFINITELY not have enough air to cool with - trust me, been there, done that.
I do agree, however, that the taurus unit needs to be wired differently. The amp draw on that fan is TOO much for a stock alternator, for one. A variable speed controller (such as the FK-35 from www.dccontrol.com) is THE way to go for the taurus/tbird/cougar/mk8 fans.
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