AC Problem

[Henry Suarez]

So the STA is now almost 5 years old and the battery quit on me last week. The good news is that my Airbag light doesn't come on anymore (Must have been a Battery issue). BTW the battery was cracked from the positive terminal to maintenance holes. Now my AC doesn't cool down the truck like it use to. First, does anyone know how long the warranty is for on the AC System, I only have 49.5k miles. Second, if I'm low on freon I probably have a leak somewhere huh? I watched the compressor for about ten minutes and it never shut off. Any help would b appreciated.

 

[scott degroot]

Typical Ford warranty is only 3 years 36,000 miles so your probably out of luck there. Did your ac problem start immediately after you replaced the battery?

 

[Ed Fenwick]

Aloha, someone on this forum said that the compressor should cycle every 5 seconds once warmed up.

 

[Henry Suarez]

Yes, I believe the AC problem started after I replaced the battery. The AC blows cold, but not as cold as I remember. Usually after ten minutes I turn down the blower cause it gets frigid in the truck....now its on max forever and it doesn't get to the point were its too cold.

 

[scott degroot]

A common problem when replacing a battery is that the hvac system goes through a recalibration when power is reconnected. Often times the temperature blend door will either fail or not recalibrate correctly and that can cause your symptoms. DO you have manual or automatic climate control?

 

[Henry Suarez]

Automatic/ Digital

 

[Jackson Ellis]

Check your voltage output with the truck running and a few accessories on. The warning light you had can be a sign of a charging system going bad (or working too hard with a weak battery). With lights, A/C full blast, and the stereo on, you should still be getting about 14 volts or so. If your charging system (alternator) is failing, then you might not get the cooling you expect from the A/C. The compressor is mechanically driven, but the blend doors and blower fan are electric.



Sometimes, batteries fail by losing one cell sooner than the others. There are 6 cells in a 12-Volt battery. If one starts to fail, the truck could still start OK for a while, but the charging system is working overtime while the engines running; trying to charge a low-voltage battery that just won't accept any more charge. The overworked alternator's performance starts deteriorating, and you finally get enough info to check your battery (truck won't start).



If that all checks out OK, then of course, check the freon level in the A/C unit. You could also take some cold air temperature readings and some of us could check your numbers against ours.

 

[Henry Suarez]

Checked the charging system at Walmart when they put in the battery and it was running perfect. I suspect its the Blend Door motor. Their 40 on Rockauto, but i have no idea how to test it or even where its at.

 

[scott degroot]

There used to be a way to check for trouble codes without the use of a scanner on the older auto climate control systems but I can't find any information that says that you can do so on the newer ones