The AC took a dump on the ford focus, it seems that it is either the AC clutch, or the ECM not telling it to come on, worked this morning on the way to work, and half way home.....crap crap crap. As if i have the time to mess with this right now.

Just spent $950 on the mini van because i didn't have the time to fix the front end, Tires alignment and tierod ends....

That sucks Scott and bet it hotter than ever exactly the worst time to quit.

That's the sure sign that it is officially summer.....ACs break!

Well... what did you expect? After all.... it is a F O R D?

As in:

Fix Or Replace Daily

Found On Rubbish Dump

Fucked On Race Day

For Old Retired Drivers

Just trying to help

Yes... great timing Maybe just drive the Honda?

All this modern crap is all controlled by computers, so it takes hours to troubleshoot. It worked fine on the way home until I stopped at the grocery store, then did not work the rest of the way home,
The clutch is not engaging, not getting a signal, could be relay, one of 3 pressure switches, diode, bad clutch, or the ECM computer......Oh yeah and it is only about 97* .....Newer cars don't have the air vents like the old cars,
The old stuff at least you could open the wing vents, and the kick panel vents and get some real airflow...

Scott, if you are sure there is enough gas in the aircon system....

Check the fuse, the relay and the earth for the aircon.... clean earths are happy earths

Pull off the plugs at the pressure switches one at a time and put a jumper wire.... see if any of them have failed

Check the blower fan is working too.... if the fan don't work (or is switched off) the aircon wont come on...

I have some more stuff to check when I get a chance, like the clutch air gap etc.....I did have a ford escort years ago that did the same thing and it was the computer not completing the ground circuit.

Here is a link to a ford fuckus site about aircon.....

http://www.focusfanatics.com/forum/gene ... air-4.html

Fuses and relay check first. Look for evidence of leaks.... make sure it has gas in it. A few of them mention the fan/blower switch in the comments..... so, like I said, make sure the blower works. One guy said his air will work with the blower on 1.... but not on any other speed.... others will work on 2 but not on 1 or 3 and so on. A good thing to do with blower fan switches is to slide them almost violently from 0 - 4 or whatever (off to high) and back again lots of times.... sometimes the copper tracks and contacts get gunked up... try to shake the shit off. If it is a rotary dial switch for the blower, rotate it fast from off to full. The ac switch, you can often get your compressor and blow into the switch while you tap it on and off lots of times.... see if you can blow any gunk out of the contacts.

Turn the center of the compressor with a socket (without the engine running dummy) and see if the compressor center shaft can turn. Hotwire the compressor with 12v from the battery, see if the compressor works at all.... bypass the pressure witches one at a time like I said before. If you get the compressor to run, if it has a window on the receiver dryer or accumulator, look in and see if smooth liquid or a shitload of bubbles. Look around the rubber overflow in the firewall from the box under the dash.... where the water comes out.... if there is no oil coming out as well.... whew!!

If it was working perfect then suddenly stopped... I would say fuse/relay/switch/earth Where shall I send the account?

I know, I know.... into Lofty's new mega toilet

Lofty.... hope you singe your butt hairs

.

When a heater/airconditioner fan in the "off" position the fan still continues to run at a low speed (cant hear it) .... it is to keep a very slight positive air pressure in the car (so that exhaust cant seep in)

The only way to turn it off is turn the fan off (of course) , and turn your defrost , heat , air , selector to off.

When you do that a vacuum operated door completely closes in the dash unit and it shuts down the whole system (via a micro-switch on the flap door)

On some cars it does that every time you shut it off. That is so bugs and ants cannot crawl in the car when it is parked

WHEW !!!! .... never mind all that except sometimes the flap door gasket is sticky and the door will not open when the car is started and then nothing works , not the fan or heat or airconditioning.

Scott .... if your dash fan comes on then the above is not your problem . If it does not come on at all it is likely your problem

Sorry for the long rant but twice in my life I have had that be the problem .... especially on GM cars , the rubber gasket gets a bit sticky with age and glues the control door shut.

Yeah everything works the clutch just wont engage, compressor turns just fine, good charge, all fuses good, Low press switch good. blower works, the thing that bothers me is that there is no change with the engine when the AC is supposed to come on, it is supposed to jump the idle speed up and turn on the fan, I even swapped relays around. AND I was not getting any power at the compressor clutch, so me thinks it is the computer.....but I did hot wire the clutch right from the battery, and it still did not engage......so it may be a combination of a bad clutch coil, and or computer ground issues.....it was having trouble the other day so I unplugged and plugged in all the plugs and it worked fine. But you could hear the clutch click, and the engine slightly stuttered and the smoothed out when the idle came back up, just like it is supposed to....Now nothing, the light comes on, blower works, just no clutch engagement... I am going to check the high press switch and the clutch air gap, etc, I have to see how to check the diode before I look on ebay for a computer and or clutch coil.

My wife's Blazer has the same issue. Perhaps it is a virus.

I considered trying to hotwire the clutch, like the "old days" but it didn't read the right ohm load, so I didn't attempt it, lest I fry a working component. I am travelling down the same rabbit hole as you now. Technology does suck sometimes.

Look for a broken wire where the wires go into the compressor.... right where it bends to go into it. Try wiggling the wire with the ac on and engine running.... and check the earth wire from compressor especially

When you press the aircon button, does the switch light up? If it does light up, put the blower fan switch to off... does the aircon light go off?

If you know anyone with a fuckus like yours, see if you can try their aircon on off button/switch and their heater blower switch.... Tap your switches with the handle of a screwdriver (quite hard without breaking it).... my Subaru stereo has no clock or station display.... unless I bang the dash next to it... then it lights up like a Christmas tree.... old wiring... dirty connection. The thump fixes it (for now)

Look for rats having chewed wiring

Scott- I am no mechanic....but could you temporarily hot wire the clutch to engage with a switch in the cab...then just switch the compressor off and on until more time is available to fix it right?

I tried that Stan and the clutch did not engage, that is one reason I suspect the clutch coil.

Dang skippy! fixed it! It had about .080" gap between the clutch plate and the pulley, it should only have about .015-.020"gap, over time the clutch plate wears and the gap increases, it increases even more as it gets hot.
I pulled the clutch plate and guess what, no shims underneath! So I chucked it in the lathe and turned a few thou off the snout where it bottoms.
Now it has about .020" gap, fired right up......There was some evidence of some seepage around the seal, so I will get a new compressoer with clutch from Ebay for about $100, and change it out when things calm down around here some. But for now it seems to be fixed.

Blowing at 42* and it is 96* outside, or inside the hangar.

Woooohooooo. Good on you my brother!
Geniuses are born that way!

Even a blind squirrel finds an acorn every now and then. fingers crossed...

Well then you are a repeat offender little blind squirrel!!!!

Good onya bro.... well done....

Get a compressor and fix it properly...... in winter

You are amazing!!!