air con (part 2)...

[spaced]

just tried quapmoc's advice, but to no avail. Therefore I have found out that my air con is not working. There are many reasons why air con stop working - blown fuse, leak, needs regassing etc etc. The air con light on the button still comes on when I press, but usually when you turn the air con on, you notice a slight dip in engine power when stationery, as the air con takes power from the engine, very much like when you turn your rear demister on. My gut feeling is therefore that the fuse has blown.. How do I know which is causing the problem? are there tell tell signs??

[boink]

Hi , the user handbook, or even the panel you remove from the fusebox should tell you which is the air con fuse, you can usually tell if a fuse is blown, quite easily as there see-through and if the metal inside is burnt away the fuse is kaput!

[spaced]

yes i know how to check a fuse, but the air con fuse is a relay fuse, and therefore not seethrough. Before I go ahead and buy a relay fuse, I was asking how you can tell whether the air con is not working due to either the fuse, lack of gas etc etc. To a person who is a dab hand at cars, there must be a slight tell tale sign to suggest that its more than likely the fuse than anything else? The fact that the there is no sound or anything suggesting that the air con is coming on, suggests to me that its prbably the fuse, but I am unsure. Can anyone else help?

[Toureman]

I cannot see how anyone who is a "dab hand" can help you as they do not know what car you are talking about!

[qapmoc]

Hi spaced, well if you look at the engine you should be able to figure out which belt is driving the a/c pump, the pump has pipes etc.. attached and connects to the small radiator in front of the main radiator, on most cars the a./c pump has an electric clutch on the front so that the inner part does not turn when the a/c is off and does turn when the a/c is on, check this out first, if it is turning then the a/c should get cold.
If it turns but does not get cold then follow the a/c pipes around the engine compartment, somewhere is usually a small gadget in a pipe with a glass window in it which allow you to see the gas/liquid passing (or at least bubbles in the liquid gas), find this and clean the glass so that you can see inside. Run the engine with the a/c off and watch the glass and then get somebody to switch on the a/c, you should be able to see the gas/liquid start to flow if the pump is working OK.