The original AC system worked just fine, but the car would overheat when the AC was on because the factory condenser was plugged with 100k worth of road debris. Long story short: I installed a new condenser and now the AC blows only slightly colder than ambient temp. Its not a 134a pressure problem as I have gauges and have tried it at several pressures which made no difference. Also ran cold hose water over the condenser and that made no difference, so its not an air flow problem. I'm thinking defective condenser...maybe its internally clogged??? Any ideas or comments would be greatly appreciated.

 

Did you flush and vacuum the system?????? If not, this might be your problem....

 

I didn't, and I realize thats bad, but I have filled the system several times in the past without pulling a vacuum and it still would blow cold. I'm just looking to get by for the summer, but as it sits the thing doesn't even blow cold enough to justify turning it on.

 

You're going to need at least what n2ceptor said. It's really a basic requirement when replacing parts.

 

Evacuate system,
replace expansion valve and drier, have **** flushed if you want,
vacuum for at least an hour,
recharge

 

as all have stated here...anytime something related to the air conditiong is opened up or broken....its kind of a rule of thumb to "refresh" for lack of better terms. Make sure the vacuum sucks real good...NO CLOGS

CC

 

For some reason when your A/C system has a small leak and all you do is add freon there doen't seem to be a problem. When you change a part and the whole system evacuates then that becomes a problem. I don't know the answer to that. I had a leak and I kept adding freon, everything worked fine. Then I changed evap, refilled it and everything went to crap. Unexplainable.

 

Thanks for the advice fellas. I guess I will just spend the money and have someone vacuum it and possibly flush it.