I know it's December now, but I use mine more living in Texas. A few weeks ago I turned my A/C off. (I usually just leave it on all the time during the summer months) Well a few weeks ago I turned it back on, but it wasn't cool. You can here the compressor kick in, but it didn't blow cold. Then this is the crazy thing. I turned the truck off. I looked under the hood scratching my head, and decided to crank the truck over again. Boom it blew cold. So I tried a few things, and this is what I have to do. I have to turn it on before I turn the truck on or it won't blow cold. Could it be the actual switch causing this or what? If I turn the truck on first and then turn the a/c on it's a 50-50 chance it will blow cool. Crazy if you ask me.

 

Sorry I have no clue but I will bump this up to the top for you, good luck!

 

Need vehicle description.

Sounds either like a "automatic heater control unit" failure, (was this an option?) or simply possibly a blend door cable problem?

Think i need more info, definitally sounds odd for sure.

Jay

 

May just be at the low pressure cutout switch's threshold and starting the truck with it engaged helps get past it by lessening the shock.

 

Jay,

Vehicle description is a 1995 SR5 3.0 V6 auto.

Somebody also mentioned something about an evaporator switch or something like that.

Let me know if more info is needed, and Thanks.

Shane,

As far as pressure, are you refering to Freon, or something else.

I was hoping it was as simple as the switch, because in my old 80 corolla I had to giggle the switch several time to get it to work, but it's not working in this case.

 

Yes, your refrigerant may be getting low.

 

That's exactly what it is as the symptoms described, match my old 4Runner when it started going bad. You would turn off the vehicle, wait a minute, start it back up with the a/c on and the compressor would kick in. I think those systems take a total of two pounds of R-12 and a little bit less of R-134a. You a/c system is pressurized ( I don't remember why)

It's actually a very easy fix if you buy the pressure guage and the freon at a local store. The label (usually near the radiator underneath the hood) will tell you the pressure max and min for the compressor to engage. The way I filled mine up (before it leaked again on a different note) was turned on my car, turned on the a/c with the fan going, had a temperature guage measuring coldness in the vent (just out of curiosity sake, came out to be 65 degrees, ahh the beauty of R-12). Then went to the low side (the black cover nob) and attached the hose with the R-12 canister (mind you, you probably have R-134a) to the shrader valve. The canister usually already has a mixture of oil + freon in it, but I like to tip it once in a while to get some oil in the system. There is a pressure guage that is usually with the kit and I measured and filled it until about mid way of the min and max pressures. As you are filling it up, you will notice that the compressor will engage (it's normal). Volia, recharged a/c!

 

Sounds like a plan.

Thanks you guys.