I'm hoping someone on here has an idea of what's wrong with my air-conditioning before I look at taking it to a garage and paying a fortune.

My wife mentioned yesterday that the air-con doesn't seem to be working properly.

I took the car out and noticed that only the passenger side gets ice-cold, whilst the drivers side only blows warm air. 

I checked all of the different vent settings and the left-side is definitely colder. The only time the drivers side gets colder is if I shut the left-side vents but it's still not what you'd call cold.

I also noticed that the right hand side is making a strange noise - imagine trying to spray the last of your deodrant out of an aerosol can - that's my best explanation. Goes on for a few seconds after the fan is turned off.

When I put warm air on, there doesn't seem to be any difference between left and right.

Any ideas? I'm pretty sure it's not a gas issue and the compressor clicks in absolutely fine so i'm lost.

Any pointers would be greatly appreciated.

It sounds like something is stuck which directs the flow of cold air behind the dash, that’s my guess! I mean if your getting ice cold air from one side and not the other, I honestly can’t see it being your compressor or anything air on related. Could just be a flap behind the dash which is stuck


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This tends to happen on the Mk3 when the gas is getting low. The hissing noise is probably related to a leak in the system somewhere (the condenser is a popular place), the hissing doesn't come from the same place as the leak. After a while the gas will get so low that both vents blow warm. The solution is to get the a/c system vacuum tested, repaired and refilled.

16 minutes ago, pcaouolte said:

This tends to happen on the Mk3 when the gas is getting low. The hissing noise is probably related to a leak in the system somewhere (the condenser is a popular place), the hissing doesn't come from the same place as the leak. After a while the gas will get so low that both vents blow warm. The solution is to get the a/c system vacuum tested, repaired and refilled.

Agree, I’ve seen this on a car (not a Ford though) with an AC leak in the condenser. Just before it stopped working completely it was blowing cold air from the passenger side and warm air from the drivers side. 

i had such similar issue 2 ys ago.  i thought the worst and took to fords for a check.  they jus serviced aircon and gas recharge.  worked a treat after that.  said enough fas in it to operate compressor but not enough for adequate air conditioning.   

Thank you all for your tips and advice.

I think i'll take a chance on a regas and ask my garage if they can also vacuum test the system.

Interesting that another member posted a similar topic the day after me.

 

2 hours ago, ron130888 said:

Thank you all for your tips and advice.

I think i'll take a chance on a regas and ask my garage if they can also vacuum test the system.

Interesting that another member posted a similar topic the day after me.

 

If they recharge the system make sure they put some dye in so it’s easier to find the leak later if there is one. 

On 6/24/2020 at 3:23 PM, ron130888 said:

 

I checked all of the different vent settings and the left-side is definitely colder.

I also noticed that the right hand side is making a strange noise - imagine trying to spray the last of your deodrant out of an aerosol can - that's my best explanation. Goes on for a few seconds after the fan is turned off.

Generally speaking the split to passenger vs driver is slightly passenger biased on the Focus when flow is taken in to account from the AC to the vent at least, not much but if low on gas, enough to make a little difference. If a lot, then I would definitely be interested to make sure there were no blockages along the way. (Checkout your cabin filter for good measure as well, just good practice but sometimes helps with this as the AC can get cold air fed back to it causing the pump to cut out as it thinks its too cold in the cabin, so it doesn't cool down anywhere near as quickly depending on settings).

A hiss fromtit being on isn't unusual, however if consistent its a characteristic of low gas in the system, when you get chance to take it for a look over just have a recharge on it to see; mine drew 163mg out (the shut off for my unit is 160mg, my sensor read it as extremely low and stopped it going cold) and was able to put 620mg in. I had the hiss and a good deal of cold days before it packed up but it was just a recharge that was needed. With them being sat not used for a while the gas can seep some, albeit not much at all unless there's issues, but overall people neglect the AC system and a little use here and there and check ups now and then help them to last for quite some time.

Kwik Fit for example have a decent machine for this (read: Foolproof...) so if you've got one near by I'd say its worth a trip.