Air Con Nightmare Can Anyone Help?

[IT Man]

Hi, my Ford Focus 1.6 Diesel has a fault with the Air Conditioning and I am at a loss now as to what to do.

My air conditioning is not working and has never worked since I purchased the car second hand from a private dealer.

I have taken it to an Air condition Specialist who told me that it was topped up to the correct level, and had no leaks he could see. He told me it must be an electrical fault which he could not fix, some specialist!.

Anyway I took his advice and took the car to an auto electrician who checked out the pressure switches and said they were ok. he then read the fault codes and said there were none he could read. He then left and charged me for what he had done. still the Air Con does not work. :(

I manualy cycled the pump shorting the relay pins out and the air con worked fine and came out icy cold? The Relay has voltage at the pins to power the pump and has been replaced and still no luck. Somthing is not switching the relay over to turn the aircon on?

The Fuses are all fine and it is a non climate control version.

As most people these days, I have little money to spare and this car is draining me of every penny I have :(

Could anyone PLEASE HELP me with this problem as short of taking out a Morgage and going to a Ford Dealer, I am at a total loss as to what to do.

Thanks for Reading

[stef123]

I take it you have tested the relay?

**sorry just realised you said relay has been replaced.

[Russ]

Check the air con switch

[IT Man]

Hi Russ, Thanks for your reply.

I have checked the switch which lights up when pressed also.

[Stoney871]

Just because the button lights it doesn't mean the button is working.

I reckon you need to try a different aircon/vent control unit.

Check eBay for a reasonably priced one.

[stef123]

Bypass the switch on the dashboard and see if it helps.

[IT Man]

Hi Thank you to all for your replies so far.

The switch for the air conditioning is part of a module which holds the heater controls. I have taken this module apart (Not Easy!) and the switch works fine when tested with a meter on the circuit board.

Am I correct in thinking that this module talks directly to the relay under the bonnet or does it do this via the GEM Module?

Also if this is a faulty heater control module, if I replaced it with one from say eBay, would it realy need programming in to the car to work by Fords and what does that cost to do this?

Any help would be appreciated

Thanks

[artscot79]

Despite what's been said it sounds like a duff pressure switch any half decent aircon specialist would have checked all of the above no need to go to separate people

[iantt]

does the engine cooling fan operate with the aircon switched on? and checked fuse 35 and fuse 27.

my betting is the wire from relay to pcm is corroded through, chaffed through.

[IINexusII]

like iantt said the fan should come on when the a/c is switched on, if the fan does not work then the a/c compressor will keep tuning on/off or fail to turn on at all as the fan cannot remove the heat from the condensor.

for me the fan relay which was bolted to the body under the headlight had burnt, which was stopping the a/c from working

[IT Man]

I have checked out the relay under the headlight and it is working ok.

The Engine fan does not come on when the aircon is selected?

The fuses are all intact and ok.

The rear wiper does not self cancel correctly, could this mean a GEM fault? Does the Heater control module talk to the GEM? telling the GEM to turn on the fan relay?

Any one with any other ideas? :(

[artscot79]

Faulty fan possibly or fan switch

[mrtickle666]

Possibly wiring loom corrosion?