Hi,

I recently bought a 1.4TDCi (06) for my OH to use as a runaround after her corsa got written off by somebody in a car park.

She was very excited to see that it had air conditioning, and very dissapointed when it turned out that it didn't work!

I decided to take a look at it for her to try and cheer her up.

A work colleague had a can of 'Auto Freeze' air con recharge gas, so I decided to first take a look and see (using the guage) what the car had in it.

I took off the headlight and located the refill point, put the can on and it was low, so I topped it up. I checked it 3 days later and it has the same amount in it so I assume there are no leaks, or possibly a very slow leak.

Still no luck so I checked the compressor and the clutch does not engage when the AC button is pressed.

I checked the AC fuse behind the GB and that is fine.

Now since the clutch is not engaging and AFAIK the pressure in the system is good, I need to start looking at sensors.

Does anybody know how many there are, where they are, and what they should read?

Also, I assume there is a feed to the electromagnet on the compressor clutch. Does anybody know where that is and what voltage it should read?

I understand that this is a job that could be sorted by a garage, but I like to make sure I really cant do something before I give up.

Also, the car was meant to be a cheap runaround so if the AC cant be fixed by me, it wont be fixed at all.

Thanks for any help you can offer.

Anyone?

Faulty a/c switch ?

Wiring issue ?

The AC switch is fine. I would like to check the wiring and sensors bu I don't know where they are located and I don't have a diagram of the loom.

Does anybody here have any technical data for this?

Isn't there a second fuse in the engine compartment?

There's a relay under the bonnet, in a small square plastic box next to/near the battery - assuming yours is the Mk6 Fiesta which my Fusion is based on. There may be another relay in there as well, can't remember what it's for but it should say in the handbook which one is for the A/C.

I had a problem with my A/C; the compressor wouldn't kick in when the A/C button was pressed. I removed the relay, and checked it was still working by zapping it with a 9V battery and listening for the click as the electromagnet/solenoid kicks in. The relay was working.

I Then used a multimeter to check that the relay was receiving 12V from the button. Then proceeded to bypass the relay with a bit of wire, inserting it between two of the contacts that the relay was plugged into, sending 12V to the compressor/clutch directly. The compressor then kicked in - quite a relief, as that can be quite expensive to replace.

Next had a look at the rest of the wiring, specifically to the high and low pressure sensors/switches. One has four wires, the other two. These must be in the correct state for the A/C to kick in (one closed, the other open - can't remember which way around). If you unplug the wires you can probe the switches with a multimeter to check for 'continuity' or zero resistance, or infinite resistance to see if they're ok.

It turned out the problem with mine was that one of the wires to one of the switches had broken off from the connector. Stripped back the plastic, bared the ends of the wire and connector, cleaned, tinned, soldered together and heatshrink-wrapped. Then covered in glue from a hot glue gun for good measure :)

Hope that helps in some way!

Thanks for your contribution chemfusion, I'll have the car tomorrow so I'll look into it.

Thanks for your contribution chemfusion, I'll have the car tomorrow so I'll look into it.

Any luck?

I hate to add.. but by using a DIY refill you may have caused even more damage...

Eg, too much/too little pressure. Too much/too little lubricant, wrong type of coolant etc etc.

AC is one of those temprimental , expensive things that should be left to the professionals