Aircon failure whilst pushing up hill.

[Dean Horton]

Hi there. New to the forum and my first question. Travelling today out of Adelaide pulling a small van and as we hit the Adelaide Hills the aircon went from cold to warm. Was working fine until the car started working a bit harder up the hills. It was a very hot 42 degrees. The car pushed pretty hard up those hills but the engine temp gauge never really increased. Just lost aircon.

Stopped an hour down the road. Car has been turned off for hours and has had a chance to cool down. Coolant levels all ok and car is running fine Aircon still doesn't work, just blows hot air. I do see the slight changes in engine revs when I switch it on and off. I've got 9 hours of driving to get home.

I've checked cabin filter and that is fine. Nothing appears to be blocked anywhere. Model is D23 2.3 twin turbo

Any ideas? Thank you.

 

[Old.Tony]

Several things are possible. The things you can check are the fuses and relays for the air conditioning in the engine bay distribution boxes (there should be diagrams in the lids of what each fuse/relay is for).

Also check the condition of any hoses connected to your refrigerant lines, we had a single strand detach from a fan belt and it whipped through one of the flexible hose sections, emptying our refrigerant and leaving us without aircon for the rest of the trip. A leaking seal or some damage to the condensor that sits in front of the intercooler. Damage to any of this needs to be fixed by a refrigeration specialist.