QuestionI have a 1997 Crown Victoria. It has had the "mold" problem/smell (I've read posts about using Lysol for the problem, which suggestion I will try "someday" btw). It has fully automatic climate control.
Late last summer, the A/C started to get erratic. It would blow ONLY hot (really, really hot) air, no matter what the climate control setting was. If I turned off the car AND pulled the fuse ...it would work as it should (blowing really cold air, depending upon the climate control temp setting) ...but only for a few hours to a few days. Eventually, this "trick" no longer worked: using the climate control at any settings results in really REALLY hot air through the car.
(Worse: you can't even use the "vent" setting, because that uses the climate controls TOO ...so even "vent" blows really, really hot air ...the only relief is to open the windows: my wife - it's her car - is NOT happy about this situation; we live in California.)
As far as I'm aware, the car a/c has never been serviced (we're the 2nd owners, having added an additional 53K miles to the 32K it had traveled when we bought it). It's in otherwise immaculate shape.
The only Factory Service Bulletin I've seen on a/c's in the CV 97's was about the mold problem (and I think the suggestion here about using a LOT of Lysol spray was superior to the FSB's).
Can you suggest what this problem might be? - I don't want to take it in for service without an idea of what I'm looking at; in the old days I'd probably just figure the freon needed re-charged, but I'm not even sure what they use these days.
THANKS!
AnswerIt very well could be a case of LOW freon. The system uses the newer R-134a freon.
You need to have a set of A/C gages put on the system to see what the pressures are FIRST.
NOTE: It is NOT a good idea to keep pulling the fuses on electronic components as this can cause them to soon fail.
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