I've acquired a car with an aircon problem. I'm told it was regassed 
last year.

It blasts out icey cold air for about 5 minutes before becoming totally 
ineffective for the rest of the journey. Next journey it will work again 
for the first five minutes. Each time as it begins to fail the air 
coming out smells kind of musty.

Does this ring any bells as to a possible fault?

In news:SBEpMeLOrxtCFwoM@xtreme.pipex.net,
studiosound  decided to enlighten our sheltered 
souls with a rant as follows

> I've acquired a car with an aircon problem. I'm told it was regassed
> last year.
>
> It blasts out icey cold air for about 5 minutes before becoming
> totally ineffective for the rest of the journey. Next journey it will
> work again for the first five minutes. Each time as it begins to fail
> the air coming out smells kind of musty.
>
> Does this ring any bells as to a possible fault?


It's probably been owned by one of the, extremely common, utter wankers that 
believes Aircon should only be used on really hot days "because it drinks 
loads of petrol". Use it all the time, or at least a few days a week, and 
it'll be fine.

Use it for 2 days a year and it'll soon go wrong, and flood all the 
newsgroups with posts saying things along the lines of "My aircon worked 
fine last year, but now it doesn't seem to be cold.". The system needs to be 
used to lubricate itself. It's like a woman, if you don't use it regularly, 
it'll dry up, stop working, and cause you to get hot and bothered for no 
reason other than your own tightfistedness.

HTH.


-- 
Pete M
"Has owned more Alfas than Steve H"
Range Rover Vogue SE,
Porsche 911 Carrera 3.2
Ford Capri (ressurection started)

COSOC #5
Scouse Git extraordinaire. Liverpool, Great Britain

"Pete M"  wrote in message
news:42b7212b$0$18650$14726298@news.sunsite.dk...


> It's like a woman, if you don't use it regularly,
> it'll dry up, stop working, and cause you to get hot and bothered for no
> reason other than your own tightfistedness.


You are Swiss Toni AICMFP    :o)

In news:3homfhFi6006U1@individual.net,
Carl Bowman  decided to enlighten our 
sheltered souls with a rant as follows

> "Pete M"  wrote in
> message news:42b7212b$0$18650$14726298@news.sunsite.dk...
>
>> It's like a woman, if you don't use it regularly,
>> it'll dry up, stop working, and cause you to get hot and bothered
>> for no reason other than your own tightfistedness.
>
> You are Swiss Toni AICMFP    :o)


*PROUD*


-- 
Pete M
"Has owned more Alfas than Steve H"
Range Rover Vogue SE,
Porsche 911 Carrera 3.2
Ford Capri (ressurection started)

COSOC #5
Scouse Git extraordinaire. Liverpool, Great Britain

In message <42b7212b$0$18650$14726298@news.sunsite.dk>, Pete M 
 writes

>It's probably been owned by one of the, extremely common, utter wankers that
>believes Aircon should only be used on really hot days "because it drinks
>loads of petrol". Use it all the time, or at least a few days a week, and
>it'll be fine.
>
>Use it for 2 days a year and it'll soon go wrong, and flood all the
>newsgroups with posts saying things along the lines of "My aircon worked
>fine last year, but now it doesn't seem to be cold.". The system needs to be
>used to lubricate itself. It's like a woman, if you don't use it regularly,
>it'll dry up, stop working, and cause you to get hot and bothered for no
>reason other than your own tightfistedness.


So having acquired this badly treated lady, how does one go about 
getting her er... "working" again?

"studiosound"  wrote in message 
news:SBEpMeLOrxtCFwoM@xtreme.pipex.net...

> I've acquired a car with an aircon problem. I'm told it was regassed last 
> year.
>
> It blasts out icey cold air for about 5 minutes before becoming totally 
> ineffective for the rest of the journey. Next journey it will work again 
> for the first five minutes. Each time as it begins to fail the air coming 
> out smells kind of musty.
>
> Does this ring any bells as to a possible fault?


What make and model of car? Sounds like a problem with some makes of A/C 
compressor (like the one fitted to my Volvo 850!) where the electro-magnetic 
clutch wears to a point where it won't engage when it's hot. The gap between 
the pulley and clutch plate should be between 0.3mm and 0.6mm and if it 
wears more than around 0.7mm this can happen - try and see what make 
compressor yours is and search the web for the tollerence. The one on my car 
is at about 0.9mm at the moment and has exactly the same fault as yours, and 
the gas level has been checked and is fine.

Some compressors must be replaced, others you can remove the driven plate 
and remove shimms to get the gap back within spec.
On most cars you can remove the plate and adjust / re-fit on the car without 
removing the refrigerant pipes.

Alan.

> It's probably been owned by one of the, extremely common, utter wankers that
> believes Aircon should only be used on really hot days "because it drinks
> loads of petrol". Use it all the time, or at least a few days a week, and
> it'll be fine.


agreed, my 18 yr old Honda air con still going ok.. use it or loose it
!

>
> Use it for 2 days a year and it'll soon go wrong, and flood all the
> newsgroups with posts saying things along the lines of "My aircon worked
> fine last year, but now it doesn't seem to be cold.".


Yep, do you know how to top up a freon system ? Is it possible ?

 The system needs to be

> used to lubricate itself. It's like a woman, if you don't use it regularly,
> it'll dry up, stop working, and cause you to get hot and bothered for no
> reason other than your own tightfistedness.
> 

so that must be where I'm going wrong with women then :0)

Simon

studiosound wrote:


> I've acquired a car with an aircon problem. I'm told it was regassed 
> last year.
> 
> It blasts out icey cold air for about 5 minutes before becoming totally 
> ineffective for the rest of the journey. Next journey it will work again 
> for the first five minutes. Each time as it begins to fail the air 
> coming out smells kind of musty.
> 
> Does this ring any bells as to a possible fault?


This is *exactly* the problem I have- intermittent and packs up with a 
musty smell. I hope someone replies with a likely cure. I know that the 
compressor is working okay, but beyond that....?


Regards, Jim.