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thehune
Dodge Dakota
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4/23/2008
18:26:39
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 Subject: ac cold air was intermittent, now gone
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ok. I need a little advice before I allow the shop to take $1500 from me.
I have 98 dodge dakota, 3.9L V6. Last summer the a/c would stop blowing cold air after about 20 minutes, then if I shut the truck off for a bit and restart it, cold air would come back to me. I decided to have it charged, which worked great for about 3 days, then it started doing the intermittent thing again. They checked for leaks and found none. They charged it again and same thing, a couple days of cold air, and then eventually it just stopped being cold at all. Brought back to same shop and they said I need a new evaporator, expansion tubes, and compressor, totalling $1500 after tax. To this day I have no cold air. Any one else have this problem? If so, what did you do?
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dakota49
Dodge Dakota
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4/23/2008
19:48:17
|  RE: ac cold air was intermittent, now gone
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thehune, I doubt if your compressor is bad, if it was it wouldn't work when they recharge it, I do think you have a leak some where, the way to find it for sure is to put in some die, then run it for a while and use an ultra violet light and special googles and you should be able to find the leak. It sounds to me like the shop you are going to is just wanting to change parts. I think I would try another shop to see what they think. Just a suggestion, if you take to another shop, don't tell them you had taken it some place else, and what they said, they are lieable to try to sell you the same line thinking if you think it does have the problem someone else told you, they will sell you the same parts the other shop tried to. I know I am cynical, but I don't trust anyone.
Good Luck
Dakota49
1988 3.9 4X4 5speed
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daddio
Dodge Dakota
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4/23/2008
21:28:49
| RE: ac cold air was intermittent, now gone
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if they didn't fix it right the first time they either given you your money back or kept the truck until it was repaired properly.
there are a lot of things to check on the system. first thing to do is check to see if the system is still charged and go from there.
if you don't know how or have the tools, either get a friend that can help or find another a/c shop. don't go back to the first one unless they're going to warranty it.
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tlee
Dodge Dakota
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4/28/2008
16:43:04
| RE: ac cold air was intermittent, now gone
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I had some problems with mine kicking in and out too. I'm not much of a mechanic but the first thing I did was see if the clutch for the compressor was kicking in. It wasn't for me and I was able to trace back from their and find my problem. If this sounds like a possibility, let me know and I'll explain the next sequence of steps I did to isolate the problem. Good luck.
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Bob Lincoln
Dodge Dakota
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4/29/2008
08:40:33
| RE: ac cold air was intermittent, now gone
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Get free repair from the first shop or take them to small claims court. They f***ed up by not detecting a massive leak.
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fotodak
Dodge Dakota
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4/29/2008
13:36:07
| RE: ac cold air was intermittent, now gone
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Agree with Mr. Lincoln, there is a massive leak which they did not detect. Then they put freon in it...knowing it would leak back out.
The reason it won't work anymore is because of the low freon switch. It won't allow the compressor to engage if the freon is low.
Obviously the leak is in the evaporator and the shop is trying to double dip in your pants.
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thehune
Dodge Dakota
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4/29/2008
13:43:09
| RE: ac cold air was intermittent, now gone
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they said they put dye in and did not find a leak.
If there is a massive leak would I see it on the ground? Shop said something is cloging the system, so i'm guessing thats why they said a new evaporator.
tlee, Could you let me know what steps you did to isolate the problem? I am mechanical, so I would like to tackle this myself. Thanks everyone so far for your feed back.
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shadetree
Dodge Dakota
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4/29/2008
14:58:37
| RE: ac cold air was intermittent, now gone
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I would check you orifice tube, should be somewhere in the suction line. If its plugged you should be able to feel the larger diameter hose and where its no longer cold is a good indication of where the blockage is.
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daddio
Dodge Dakota
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4/29/2008
15:46:28
| RE: ac cold air was intermittent, now gone
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if the charge is good and there is a restriction in the system, it will usually ice up at the restriction. put some gages on it and see whats going on. from your first description, it sounds like a leak. you won't see it on the ground but you will at the connections in the system unless it's the evap. then you could look at the drain or open the evap case and take a look at it.
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tlee
Dodge Dakota
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4/29/2008
18:32:22
| RE: ac cold air was intermittent, now gone
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The first thing I did was attempt to actually charge it with freon thinking it was low. The pressure gauges looked good so I kind of figured the low pressure switch couldn't be making the compresser kick out. I unplugged the wire that feeds power to the compresser clutch and checked the voltage to see if that was the issue. I had voltage at the plug so then went to the clutch itself. I don't recommend this but what I did was hold a metal screw drive near the front of the clutch pulley for the compresser. If the clutch is trying to engage, the metal screw driver will get pulled up to the head of the compresser. I had someone flip the ac switch on and off and I could feel the magnetic coil trying to pull the compresser clutch in. I then pulled the clutch pulley off and just cleaned the inside and the spline that the clutch slides on ( I can't remember but I think it was brake cleaner I used). I put a little grease on the spline and put everything back together and its been working for about a month now. It's a shot in the dark but it worked for me....at least for the time being.
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