Air Conditioning broken. 316i E46 automatic.

[Padraic]

ON turning on the AC, the compressor seems to engage and the RPM increases. But the temperature of the air vent does not drop. The middle vent is set to cold, but the temperature remains ambient.

I did buy a kit to refill my gas. But the pressure on the low pressure end was high, not low, warning me not to precede and seek a specialist (which I should have done in the first place). I was expecting 30 to 40 PSI. I have a read of 3 times that.

Also, I notice the fan does not engage when I switch on the AC, which I assume it should. I am a little confused about the set up as well. Is there supposed to be only one fan, or two? There is one in my car. I doubt I'm missing an aux fan I was expecting to see in front of the radiator.

Long story short. The AC is not working. I have high pressure. And, this might not be an issue, the cooling fan does not engage when the AC is turned on.

Any ideas? Or any recommendations for specialists?

Padriac

[John_D]

In regards to the fan question there is only 1 fan for both rads. You say your revs drop when you switch on the AC, mine increase by about 100rpm.
Perhaps your compressor is knackered? Either way it's something I would definitely leave to a specialist. I think BMW dealers were doing a deal for an AC service something like €60 iirc...

[Don B]

Mine was the same, I got a specialist to call out and it works perfect now

[Padraic]

In regards to the fan question there is only 1 fan for both rads. You say your revs drop when you switch on the AC, mine increase by about 100rpm.
Perhaps your compressor is knackered? Either way it's something I would definitely leave to a specialist. I think BMW dealers were doing a deal for an AC service something like €60 iirc...

I meant to say increase. my revs go up to 1oo rpm similar to yours.

Thank you

[Padraic]

Mine was the same, I got a specialist to call out and it works perfect now

very good. What exactly was wrong do you remember?

Message me the specialist you hired.

Thanks,

Padraic

[Don B]

Mine was the same, I got a specialist to call out and it works perfect now

very good. What exactly was wrong do you remember?

Message me the specialist you hired.

Thanks,

Padraic

Mine is digital climate control, when the aircon button was pressed, you could hear
something happening, but no difference in temperature.

I got John Keneally to call out to the house, he's based in tallaght. Just google 'air
con tallaght' you'll get his details

[Padraic]

Update:


As you know, the pressure on the low end was high. I discovered this when I bought a kit.

John had a look at it and after a few minutes decided that there was too much gas in the system. He drained the gas and that brought the pressure down. I promised him that I hadn't put any Gas in the system, which i hadn't, but I'm not sure he was convinced. After this I switched on the AC. Disappointingly, the compressor didn't kick in. I thought the worst, but John just stuck a lamp down the back of the compressor and had a look. "loose wire", he said. A second later the compressor is turning. The air was freezing cold. He topped of the gas and charged me a small fee. I know have air conditioning. Although there is a rattle at idle when the AC is on. I'll sort that later.

Here's what I think happened. The air conditioning was working just fine. But, the wire on the compressor somehow became loose, maybe during a service or repair. In order to fix the AC, the person previous overcharged the system in an attempt to fix it. I spent 70 Euros on a kit to to discover the high pressure. Anyways, I guess I can recharge the system in a couple of years or when needs be.

I'm happy, and cool anyway.

Padraic

[John_D]

Great result, perfect timing with the weather we're having. Thanks for the update.