Braced

Well maybe. My dealer and I are narrowing in on it anyway. Took the car in 2 weeks ago and left it with the dealer for an entire week while I was away at work. The a/c worked perfect for them in every scenerio they could muster up.

Today I took the car for a 50 mile jaunt through the back desert roads here in Vegas. The a/c went warm again. Drove straight to the dealer so he could see it first hand. Car is also experiencing an "erratic fuel gauge" problem which was acting up as well.

The technician came out to investigate the warm a/c. He noted that the compressor was not activated. He cycled the compressor switch (the snow flake button) on the control unit in the car. The compressor came to life and the a/c once again blew cold.

The question now is why is this happening? This is where this forum can help us. Please pipe in and give us some help here if you are experiencing this problem.

Supposedly when you punch the throttle the a/c will deactivate momentarily to allow more power. I punched it to get around a few gravel trucks and shortly after that the a/c went warm. Is this the fault? It's not resetting? Or is it related to cars experiencing the erratic fuel gauge problem or both?

My car is a Z-51 equipped coupe. It has 4000 miles on it and obviously has the fuel gauge problem.

Please respond with some car info and brief scenario if you are experienceing this air conditioner problem. It may be as simple as a bad batch of control units (head unit in cockpit).

Thanks for your help,

SB

P.S. Mine has done it in extreme heat 105, and today at 85 degrees.

U2bassAce

At less than 300 miles on a 3 day old Vert. Drove it out to Temecula. No problem with the air but it was a hot as hell day. Top down. Parked in about 105 degree heat. Put top up. Ran in to the place and found out I had to drive a mile down the road. Hopped back in car with top still up this time. Already hot inside from the sun and outside heat.

AC blew humid hot *** air for a good 3 to 4 minutes. Definitly NO cold air working. Just hotter than outside humid air. AC finally kicked in as we arrived at the next stop that we stayed at until it cooled down later.

Never had had problem again. But have never been in such heat again either YET.

Seems to be linked with extreme 100 plus temps.

jhbrennan

If you manually turn the A/C off (with the "snowflake" button), in order to get A/C back on you either have to select "Auto" again or turn it on with the snowflake button. I don't believe the A/C resets without some intervention from you after you turn it off.

Rob4092xx

Braced.....I had already figured out pushing the compressor button off, then on again, reactivated the cool air.

However, I am still having the same problem of it shutting off and blowing warm, moist air.

Rob

Vette_DD

The owner's manual mentions turning the A/C compressor back on with the AUTO button, but doesn't say anything about turning it back on with the "snowflake" button.

^(Air Conditioning Off): Press this button to turn the
air conditioning compressor off. Press AUTO to return to
automatic operation. When in AUTO, the air conditioning
compressor will come on automatically, as needed.
Air conditioning does not operate at temperatures below
about 35°F to 40°F (2°C to 4°C). In temperatures above
40°F (4°C), the air conditioning cannot be turned off in
defrost and defog, as it helps to remove moisture from the
vehicle. It also helps to keep the windows clear.
You may notice a slight change in engine performance
when the air-conditioning compressor shuts off and
turns on again. This is normal. The system is designed
to make adjustments to help with fuel economy while
still maintaining the selected temperature.

Braced

Yes but why is it shuting off? That is what my dealer is trying to figure out. So far this is what we have found:

1. Does the a/c go off when full throttle is applied and if so is the a/c cycling back on after punching it?

2. Is the problem just a simple batch of bad head units?

3. Is the problem related to the erratic fuel gauge problem? The dealer wanted to investigate if the computer is sensing a fault and shuting down the a/c system.

I never touched the snow flake button before but it seems to recycle the compressor when it fails.

I'm just throwing these ideas out to anybody else who has this problem, looking for a common link that might solve it.

GasmanZR1

Yes, the A/C compressor goes off when you go full throttle. This should only be felt for a few seconds after you have stopped going full throttle. Anything else is a problem.

pasquale

I have a Z51 vert. 1 month old with 720 miles. At about 550 miles I experienced my one and only A/C problem.

Car war parked in hot 105F Scottsdale, Arizona heat parking lot. Top up. As I left the parking lot, the A/C worked fine for about 10 minutes. I turned the fan down one speed and hot air started coming out while I was on the freeway.

The problem lasted just one day. Haven't had the problem since but like most people posting are mentioning the heat (happily) hasn't been that hot since.

austinC6

LS WON

Opposed to not using the auto climate control. Then your R-134 will last longer because you use it less?

DebtCraft

You bring up a few good points/ideas.

The first time I had the A/C problem was after a serious WOT experience in 113 degree heat. It started blowing hot/moist air right after I hit the next stoplight. So, you might be on to something with the accelleration idea. Problem is, it didn't happen because of that the next few times, but I wonder if that set it off to begin with?????

As for the snowflake button, I didn't try that one when I was having the problem. I only tried the recirculate because it would go off when the problem would occur. If the snowflake (compressor?) button will get it going again, I may consider not driving the car through my dealer's front window next time it happens.

vetracer

I have an early production C6 (VIN# 02178) and have not had any problems, 3500 miles and hotter than hell here in Phoenix. My air has always worked great. Hope I didn't just jinx it...

austinC6

It's about 95 today in Austin, and I just got back from a drive. The A/C problem showed up frequently, and did seem to be temporarily corrected by hitting the AC off button followed by the Auto button. I got on the throttle several times while the cold air was blowing and never felt the warm air right away, so I'm still thinking my problem is not related to hard acceleration as others have suggested. I also never saw any erratic fuel gauge problems.

Another symptom of this problem, is that the fan speed constantly remains high, or cycles frequently from low to high to low as the A/C gets warmer/colder/warmer. This is probably due to the computer attempting to maintain a cool temperature using whatever means it can. Normally the fan speed will drop down to a low speed once the desired temperature has been established.

I am going to have to take the car in next week, since I need the A/C working reliably for a road trip coming up in several weeks. I hope the failure is a consistant as it was today, then maybe the techs can get a handle on this.

mikejofgb

My dealer contacted GM and this is what they've come up with....

At the factory they were putting 1.4 pounds of freon in the air conditioning system. The proper amount of freon (they have now discovered) is 1.1 pounds. The higher amount of freon resulted in too high of pressure in the system, which resulted in the disengaging of the system.

They reduced the freon in my system and the A/C is working properly now. Apparantly GM will be putting a new sticker on vehicles produced regarding freon levels, and in their opinion the problem has been solved.

I told the dealer I would post this out there as many of us have had the problem. I hope this helps at lease a few of you!!

Mike

Vette_DD

No. Unit works more efficiently in the AUTO mode. When you shut it off and start it up again, you got to recool all the hot air in the cabin. The compressor will shut off and come back on again automatically as it needs to in order to maintain the set condition.

mforman42

Based on my experience, I agree with those who say it is related to the amount of refrigerant in the system. Mine has done it on a hot day (about 110 at the time), parked for 30 minutes. It only took a minute or so to start working again.

BTW - Which Vegas area dealer are you working with? I've had really good luck with Ray at Henderson Chevy in the past.

Larry B.

A/C systems don't "use up" refrigerant, unless there is a leak. Just like your refrig. or home A/C. Too much charge will create high head pressure and on very hot days could trip the high cut out switch. A slightly lower charge will stop that from happening. Then you could get freeze up on extended cruises at moderate temps.

TOPGON

Same A/C cycling problem happened to me for the last two days. The Auto setting had nothing to do with the problem as the compressor will periodcally quit with the system in auto followed by the fan (still on high) pumping out hot air that is not normal auto thermo control cycling. When the compressor quits naturally the cabin temp climbs well beyond the auto setting. I'm going for the freon level check first which is a technially sound approach then I'll go from there.

mikejofgb

Have many people found the 1.4lb to 1.1lb answer to be the solutions to their problems? Mine has worked perfectly since this change... a "thank you" is in order to whoever first posted this as the solution! (Wait, that was ME!)

vrodder64

I had the same A/C trouble as a lot of others. The following quote was the fix for the problem.

Thanks for the forum! Kudos to it's membership! And especially thanks to Mike!