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Air con in mondeo   
I've a 2001 ghia.Air con on starting works fine, but after 15/ 20 mins
the the air con seems to warm up.Any help or advice.
Date:29 Aug 2005 12:27:11 -0700   Author:  

Re: Air con in mondeo   
wrote in message 
news:1125343631.905763.209430@g47g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...

> I've a 2001 ghia.Air con on starting works fine, but after 15/ 20 mins
> the the air con seems to warm up.Any help or advice.



Is the system hot without using the air conditioning?

-- 
The DervMan
www.dervman.com
Date:Mon, 29 Aug 2005 20:01:08 GMT   Author:  

Re: Air con in mondeo   
"DervMan"  wrote in message 
news:8QJQe.3693$t4.2137@newsfe1-gui.ntli.net...

>  wrote in message 
> news:1125343631.905763.209430@g47g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
>> I've a 2001 ghia.Air con on starting works fine, but after 15/ 20 mins
>> the the air con seems to warm up.Any help or advice.
>
> Is the system hot without using the air conditioning?
>

turn it to the demist
the aircon automaticly kicks in to help
leave it there and wait for the tell tale kick of the air con clutch kicking 
in and out after the 15/20 minutes or so
if it doesn't then it sounds like you need a regas


> -- 
> The DervMan
> www.dervman.com
> 
Date:Mon, 29 Aug 2005 22:21:08 +0100   Author:  

Re: Air con in mondeo   
wrote in message 
news:1125343631.905763.209430@g47g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...

> I've a 2001 ghia.Air con on starting works fine, but after 15/ 20 mins
> the the air con seems to warm up.Any help or advice.
>


This is a common problem with many cars when the friction plate on the AC 
compressor electro-magnetic clutch wears, and as the compressor warms up 
when it's in use the magnetic force required to hold the clutch engaged 
becomes too much. Usually the AC cuts out after 15-20 minutes of use and 
will not come on again until the compressor has cooled, often after the car 
has been off for a while. The heat spread from the running engine is usually 
enough to prevent the compressor from cooling enough to work again - hence 
it does not work again until after the engine has cooled also.

You can measure the clutch plate gap with feeler gauges. Ford may tell you 
the specified gap, or you may find it on-line.

Most compessors have shims to adjust this gap, and by removing the clutch 
plate and removing a shim or two you can get the gap back in spec. You may 
need to make up a puller tool to remove the plate. Depending on the 
compressor's location you may be able to do this in situ and without 
touching the refrigerant pipes. If you *do* disconnect the refrigerant pipes 
you'll lose the gas charge and will need the system re-charging. Do not use 
one of these re-fill kits from ebay, get the correct charge quantity from an 
AC specialist, or if you're near Bedfordshire I can re-charge it for you.

The fact your system works for 15 mins or so suggests that it has enough gas 
in it to cool, so probably does not need a re-charge, just the clutch gap 
adjusting. However if the cooling is poor when it does it may also need a 
re-charge.

I did this recently on my Volvo 850 and a Saab 9000, on the 850 I had to 
remove the compressor from the car to adjust the gap (a slow job!) but on 
the 9000 it could be done in-place without removing the pipes.
On both cars it resolved the same fault you describe.

Hope that helps,

Alan.
Date:Tue, 30 Aug 2005 11:42:45 GMT   Author:  

Re: Air con in mondeo   
Thanks for the replys.The clutch on the compressor problems, seem to me
to be the most obvious.I have to shop around for prices. Any good AC
engineers in SE London?.Thanks again all.
Date:1 Sep 2005 12:31:30 -0700   Author: