AirCon - not cold, but compressor working?

[upallnight]

Originally Posted by more_fasterer

Thanks for the advice guys. We can't buy R134a over the counter here in NZ for environmental reasons, so I'm gonna be stuck with taking the car to a service agent to get the aircon working properly.

With that said, I went to a friendly auto electrician today (to talk about an issue with the 335i... sigh, BMW life) and it turned out that he had a set of gauges. The low side was sitting at 26psi and high was at 220psi, so a bit low but not out of range. Oddly, he added a bit of gas into it and now it generates a modicum of cold air, unless the engine is idling - in which case no cooling occurs.



Yes, it has a variable compressor.



I feel like you could've presented those options in a slightly different order




Good feedback. Thanks for the link to your useful write-up, too. I'm gonna organise to have the car looked at by an aircon specialist, cos I don't really have much option. Which kinda grates, as I have DIY'd everything else on this car (including changing the trans solenoids). But it sounds like I can expect a "you need a new compressor" diagnosis.


Cheers guys

The low side appears to be lower then the design parameter. What was the ambient air temperature when these readings were taken?

It could also be the expansion valve that is attached to the evaporator inside the car. You will need to recover the refrigerant before you can replace it.

GL