blurnj13

A/C was working perfectly fine blowing out cool air. The maint light was on, so I turned key to off position when I got home from work so fan/AC was still on. I hold both buttons on the dash and turn key to ON position. The main light goes off and I thought all was well. This morning while driving to work I hit the A/C button and nothing... I don't hear the compressor kick on and no cool air. Any ideas? I'm taking the car into the dealer tomorrow anyways to fix that sticking clutch pedal problem and would like to get an idea of what might have caused this A/C problem. I realize the two (maint reset+A/C) isn't related but it was just such a coincidence. Thanks.

xviper

Do you have at least ONE fan light on? If the fan is totally shut off, this shuts the whole A/C off.

blurnj13

Umm... yeah... I've had this car for 3 years now. I think I know how the A/C works =). I had 4 to max fan lights on and hit the A/C button.... the button turns green but no compressor clicking on sound it normally makes. The reason I asked the weird connection is if there was an electrical connection somehow that maybe disabled it when I reset the maint light using both buttons instead of just the trip.

I've also reset that maint light before a number of times, but the difference this time was I did it when I was done riding the car, so the fan and A/C was on when I was doing the reset. The past times I did the reset, it was when I first got in the car which is usually with the fan and A/C completely off. Shrug.... might just be a weird coincidence like I said =).

xviper

You've been on here for 71 days. Like I'm supposed to know this? When a complete stranger over the internet asks for advice, we must make the assumption there is absolutely NO knowledge. There are guys on here who have had the car for over a year and still don't know what kind of oil to put in their engines and don't know they can't rotate the tires. Have you found the secret compartment yet? Guys have owned this car for years and still don't know about this. In fact, this very question has come up repeatedly in the past and YES, the owner did NOT know that the fan had to be on for the A/C to work.

Now, to address your situation. To make sure the A/C system is not coming on, you might have to lift the hood and then push the A/C button, go out and see if the A/C compressor actually kicked in and the second rad fan turned on. You may simply not be able to hear the thing kick in from inside the cabin, especially if you've just started the car and it's gone to fast high idle.

fltsfshr

Out of curiosity...did you have it on defrost? you can reprogram your air conditioning so it doesn't come on automatically when you defrost. And you program it in a similar manner as the maint light.

there's a post on here that tells how to do it. There are controls you can access by using the ignition and the air conditioning controls.

fltsfshr

blurnj13

No worries on thinking I was a n00b. I just never bothered to register up until a couple months ago to post. I've found most of the info I needed already covered and found no need to post =). Anyways, yes I've read that post regarding the defrost mode, and no that's not the case. I have it on standard normal vent mode. When it stopped working I also tried the defrost mode and nada. I just checked it out again at lunch, and it seems now I hear the compressor click. I hear a ghost like whooshing sound coming from the vent but no cold air... I'm guessing the A/C is just broke or need recharging or something. I was just worried before when I didn't hear the compressor click on.

oh and yes I found the secret compartment.... and no not by myself.... I had it a year and some friend who had a s2k was like you found your secret compartment yet, and I'm like what are you talking about? I thought he was kidding.... then one day I just notcied that little handle and pushed up =) that discovery gave me chills =p.

xviper

A sure give away is the rad fan turning on when the A/C button is pushed. You have a fairly old car. It may well be that the refrigerant has bled out.

blurnj13

Great.... I'll try hitting the A/C button with the hood up after work and check that radiator fan. If it is the refrigerant that bled out, is that just a recharge? or something more serious? Thanks again.

xviper

I would try the recharge first. It's not that expensive to see if that will fix it. Then, if it works but bleeds out again, you'll need to look into where it's leaking from. Most places can do a leak check at the time of recharge.

blurnj13

Result from dealer:

Mechanic said rock flew into condensor and it's pretty much toast. They said it will cost me 800ish total to fix. I already told him just get it fixed, but wanted to know if I'm getting royally super-dealer screwed...