Air-conditioning Service - Issues

[Jazman23]

Hi Guys,

On Wednesday I took my (2009) Fiesta Zetec 1.25 in to my Local Halfords Autocentre for the full Air-con service and Re-gas. I've had the car for a year now and not had it done and no record of the previous owner having it done.

Got the car back Wednesday night and tested the air con, it felt more powerful (may be just a placebo effect though) and i definitely noticed an improvement in terms of smell (doesnt stink anymore) but no noticable difference in how cold it is.

Anyway I've noticed that when I am now driving along with the Air Con running there is a noticable drop and burst in power. For example if i was driving along at 40mph steady every 30 seconds there would be a random burst in power and then a loss of power, as if I am tapping the accelerator. This matches when the compressor turns off or starts up again every 30 secs. If this happens when i am changing gear then the car shudders like when you change down a gear at the wrong time.

Also when Idle the engine struggles when the compressor starts running every 30 secs and if i accelerate it feels like it wants to stall.

All this ONLY happens when the AC is On and it has only been happening since the service.

I spoke to my local ford dealer and they tell me this isnt normal and the air con should have no or very little impact on the engine.

Has anyone else had a similar issue? The car is supposed to be back in with Halfords tomorrow to check but im worried they will say its not their problem. Can they do that? I dont fancy paying £95 an hour for my local dealer to look at the issue

Thanks in Advance

[Sheldon Smith]

I don't have any kind of trouble with my car.Once i have the power drop when i am driving but at that instance i take it to the dealer and he suddenly checked it and repaired it immediately.There is nothing related to the air conditioning unit.The problem must be in the engine as far as i am concerned.

[charlie866]

I have had my 2009 1.4 titanium from new. I have had that problem since I bought it. I had it back twice but they assured me it was normal. Any idea what the fix was Sheldon.

[Jazman23]

I have had my 2009 1.4 titanium from new. I have had that problem since I bought it. I had it back twice but they assured me it was normal. Any idea what the fix was Sheldon.

If it's causing your car to accelerate when the compressor kicks in then it's definitely not normal at all, that's what it was doing with me, the revs when idle would increase each cycle as well, when i was looking at it with a mechanic we sat and watched it take the revs up as far as 2000 rpm and then back down to nearly stalling. No one could identify the problem but when I phoned ford they told me it definitely wasn't normal behavior and sounded dangerous. At the same time the air con pressure would jump up into the red zone and back down again matching the cycles.

I never found out what it was in the end. I was waiting until early November to have it looked into when it was due a service but I got rid of the car at the start of October as it developed a separate problem that made unpleasant to drive that could never be identified.

I now have a new 2015 fiesta and the aircon does not behave in the same way at all, works perfectly fine and has no impact on the engine performance.