Never ever had a car with a working AC

[Patman]

Enjoy! I find that around 21C I can live without it... but much above that and it's required, especially on highway drives. The wind noise from having a window open is deafening after a while.

Even when it’s 30c here I still drive with the windows down and the AC off in my Civic. Unless it’s raining and warm. There’s a pretty big hit in the fuel economy with the AC on in that car. My Corvette doesn’t seem to care too much if the AC is on or off, it gets roughly the same gas mileage either way. Makes no sense to me how that works…

 

[69GTX]

My AC on the 2001 Lincoln Continental (75K miles) went out suddenly a couple weeks ago. It wasn't like it was slowly getting worse. A few days or a week after the last drive, it just was blowing hot AFTER 8 yrs of ice cold. I think everything in the AC system is factory original. Hoses, lines, and radiator/condenser/evap all are. Changed out a fairly gunked up CAF....no change at all. Blend door cycles fine. Coolant system is fresh and fine best I can tell. I suspect a failed AC compressor or HP / LP c/o switches. Either way, looking at $500-$1000+ for a shop to work in a very cramped engine compartment with the transverse engine placement. For now, will probably just put up with 2-3 hot months without it. No issue in the winter. The other car has good AC. I really don't want to put much money into this car as it's given me the 6-8 yrs I wanted out of it. And also not far down the road is the engine bay 100K+ maintenance for new plugs/coil packs, alternator, hoses/belts/tensioner/idlers. Only a matter of time before the 25 yr old "green coolant" radiator goes as well.

 

[supton]

Even when it’s 30c here I still drive with the windows down and the AC off in my Civic. Unless it’s raining and warm. There’s a pretty big hit in the fuel economy with the AC on in that car. My Corvette doesn’t seem to care too much if the AC is on or off, it gets roughly the same gas mileage either way. Makes no sense to me how that works…

5% hit on 40mpg car means 38mpg. 5% at 15mpg and you won't notice, not when you're spending all that time leaving stoplights at WOT.

 

[Patman]

5% hit on 40mpg car means 38mpg. 5% at 15mpg and you won't notice, not when you're spending all that time leaving stoplights at WOT.

The Civic loses more than 5%. I usually get over 50 MPG on most trips but with the AC on it’s more like 45.

The Corvette gets 26-27 MPG on most of my trips and the AC doesn’t seem to change that.

 

[wtd]

I am handle the heat in a car, but I can’t sleep in the heat. My current car has no AC, and I’m in Atlanta. It’s hot and humid, but I find I can handle it ok. But I need low 70s to sleep!

I can't sleep in the heat either these days. We usually have our AC about 70-71 at night.

 

[Snagglefoot]

You really should get A/C repaired as opposed to just dumping in refrigerant every year especially R12a. Not good for the environment.

Thanks for the post. Yes, R12A contains propane and butane but as green house gases go, R12 is a worse player. Every time a propane tank gets filled it shoots a jet of propane into the atmosphere. You can multiply that by millions of tanks getting filled. I don’t lose sleep over 6 to 12 oz per year. And yes, R12A is not sold in the US but is in Canada and the EU. Couldn’t care less.

My system lost its R12 completely. Damage done. I did my best to find and fix the leak, the system has dye and I used both a black light and a sniffer. I used a vacuum pump to evacuate the system, then loaded the appropriate weight of R12A. Spending thousands at a shop is not viable in this older vehicle. R12A is available at every one of the 500 + Canadian Tire stores in Canada.

 

[Snagglefoot]

I never had a car with an air conditioner, working or not, until 1985, when I bought an AUDI.

Before then, I had "260 A/C". which was, open 2 windows, drive 60 miles per hour.

I had an old car with a duct under the dashboard. It was a crotch cooler.

 

[M104]

I will try to find someone competent enough to find the leak in the Mercedes. To be honest, If it turns out the evaporator is leaking or no one is able to make it work I might rip the whole AC system off the car despite being my main car and enjoy the added room in the engine bay and less airflow obstruction in front of the radiator.

 

[OM617YOTA]

OP, maybe try dumping in a can of refrigerant and see if that limps the system along awhile longer, even if just for this trip? If that works, bring some extra cans along and recharge as needed along the way.

I never did handle heat, I'm puking while other people are enjoying the sun. Found out I have medical issues that explain why. AC is non-negotiable safety equipment in both home and vehicles, as far as I'm concerned.

 

[M104]

The only refrigerant I can buy is R12A and i have to order it online. I think the leak is bad enough that I can't get it charged at all.

 

[OM617YOTA]

Best of luck.

 

[JunkdrawerDog]

I never owned a car with air conditioning until I was nearly 40. I began to follow advice from a car dealer friend who told me to always get an automatic transmission and air conditioning. It makes the car much easier to sell or trade.

 

[M104]

What's frustrating is that I would never buy a car without a working AC yet it absolutely always fails in the following weeks or months. Everytime I say to myself "this time it will keep working". I guess I am cursed with failing ACs and tire vibration issues. I was talking about that with someone in my familly who has a working AC in all of his vehicle without doing anything, 20-30 year old cars too. A friend who drives major clunkers also has a working AC in everything.

 

[JavierH19]

I could never be without ac even if money was getting tight unless I was in cool enough climate to where having the windows down is enough to keep me from sweating especially the back of my shirt.

Worst case scenario if it's the evaporator and it's very hard to replace and leaks too quickly for regular or even metal stop leak to work I'll go to the junkyard to find a lookalike pig with some tools and an oscillator to remove the glove box to experiment on out how to cut into it as well as possible and remove the difficult to replace evap and glue the panel back on and vacuum and recharge after changing other things.

This is going to become much more common on newer vehicles that will electronically disable the ac over any nonsense like some corrupted file in the aging gauge cluster that links the module to the ecu which I've read has begun to happen on older vehicles. But in that case I'll jump the clutch directly to a switch and bypass everything unless the hvac module also disables the fan control which is trickier to bypass but I'd still do it. I think some variable compressors go to the lowest displacement setting and disable so that's another tricky bypass. If it's a hybrid then it might not be possible. I think those have constant power going to it but the little computer commands it on and at a variable motor speed from within which can't be bypassed easily and would likely be easier and faster to fix the issue disabling that instead.

 

[Kurtatron]

It’s disappointing that auto ACs don’t last as long as stationary home units. Stationary units last for like 30 years. Automotive units start leaking after a handful of years.

I wonder if electric compressor AC systems will last longer? If you install a traditional Electric compressor right next to the evaporator, less lines to leak. I’d approve if an electric system if it makes a more robust system.

 

[SwampSurvivor]

What's frustrating is that I would never buy a car without a working AC yet it absolutely always fails in the following weeks or months. Everytime I say to myself "this time it will keep working". I guess I am cursed with failing ACs and tire vibration issues. I was talking about that with someone in my familly who has a working AC in all of his vehicle without doing anything, 20-30 year old cars too. A friend who drives major clunkers also has a working AC in everything.

The vibration thing drives me nuts. I've replaced every suspension and steering component on my grand marquis , tires and wheels. It still has a shimmy that just doesn't go away.

 

[charbaby]

I’ve had my share of vehicles w/o AC or non working AC.
NO MORE, I can’t take it!

 

[IndyIan]

I have spent most of my life without ac

Due to a deer hit my current car has no sc either, it’s a simple repair needed but nobody wants to touch ac at any of the independents anymore and the “ac” place doesn’t want to do any real part replacements.

We are living in stupid times.

Well, there must be some place that does it? Do some google map searching, for some highly reviewed old places, and bonus points if they don't have webpage. The place I used is Radiator shop in name at least, and they haven't cleaned their waiting room since 1998, but they do fix everyone's AC quite well, for a good price!

 

[PandaBear]

I have spent most of my life without ac

Due to a deer hit my current car has no sc either, it’s a simple repair needed but nobody wants to touch ac at any of the independents anymore and the “ac” place doesn’t want to do any real part replacements.

We are living in stupid times.

So is it just a broken condenser? If so you can probably just swap it out and then hire a mobile AC guy to come charge it up at your home. I did mine about 15 years ago (I'm sure time has changed), or you can call a home AC guy and see if they are willing to charge for you.

 

[PandaBear]

Even when it’s 30c here I still drive with the windows down and the AC off in my Civic. Unless it’s raining and warm. There’s a pretty big hit in the fuel economy with the AC on in that car. My Corvette doesn’t seem to care too much if the AC is on or off, it gets roughly the same gas mileage either way. Makes no sense to me how that works…

Cars with large engine and bad aerodynamics tend to not get hit with AC as much as cars with good aerodynamic and small engine.