PT Cruiser Air Conditioning

I have a 2003 PT Limited Edition and the air condenser seems to kick in and
out frequently and cause a a vibration like the engine might be missing. My
'98 Grand Prix has air also and I've never noticed it acting in this manner.
Should I have the PT air unit checked?

"Even Stephen" > wrote in message
news
>I have a 2003 PT Limited Edition and the air condenser seems to kick in and
>out frequently and cause a a vibration like the engine might be missing.
>My '98 Grand Prix has air also and I've never noticed it acting in this
>manner. Should I have the PT air unit checked?

Judging from your 2 posts here about the symptoms and the fact that your
relief went off I would have to say that either the electric radiator fan or
the relay that controls it is dead which is causing the high side pressure
of the A/C to shoot sky high which puts a huge load on the compressor and
thus the engine which bogs it down and is triggering both the high pressure
cutoff switch and has also triggered the pressure relief valve to open. You
need to find out why the fan isn't working and fix it then have the A/C
system inspected for damage caused by the extremely high pressure and if it
is OK have it properly recharged to replace the refrigerant and oil that was
lost when the relief valve opened.

Daniel: Thanks for the advice. I checked tonight and the fan is running.
While it is running I can hear the condenser(?) kicking in and out and the
car runs fine. The over-flow hose is connected properly. It blows a bunch
of cold air! The engine temperature gauge does not rise any higher than
usual (just under the mid-point)---in fact, when I saw the steam while
driving through the Virginia mountains I kept my eyes on the temperature
gauge and it never rose then either. Again, the water level in the
reservoir is still at the full line---no change in 1500 miles of driving.
My gut feeling is that when I stopped for gas after driving three hours in
the mountains and heat, the car didn't have time to cool down?

"Daniel Who Wants to Know" > wrote in
message news:_ij8k.224605$yE1.222953@attbi_s21...
> "Even Stephen" > wrote in message
> news
>>I have a 2003 PT Limited Edition and the air condenser seems to kick in
>>and out frequently and cause a a vibration like the engine might be
>>missing. My '98 Grand Prix has air also and I've never noticed it acting
>>in this manner. Should I have the PT air unit checked?
>
> Judging from your 2 posts here about the symptoms and the fact that your
> relief went off I would have to say that either the electric radiator fan
> or the relay that controls it is dead which is causing the high side
> pressure of the A/C to shoot sky high which puts a huge load on the
> compressor and thus the engine which bogs it down and is triggering both
> the high pressure cutoff switch and has also triggered the pressure relief
> valve to open. You need to find out why the fan isn't working and fix it
> then have the A/C system inspected for damage caused by the extremely high
> pressure and if it is OK have it properly recharged to replace the
> refrigerant and oil that was lost when the relief valve opened.
>

"Even Stephen" > wrote in message
...
> Daniel: Thanks for the advice. I checked tonight and the fan is running.
> While it is running I can hear the condenser(?) kicking in and out and the
> car runs fine. The over-flow hose is connected properly. It blows a
> bunch of cold air! The engine temperature gauge does not rise any higher
> than usual (just under the mid-point)---in fact, when I saw the steam
> while driving through the Virginia mountains I kept my eyes on the
> temperature gauge and it never rose then either. Again, the water level
> in the reservoir is still at the full line---no change in 1500 miles of
> driving. My gut feeling is that when I stopped for gas after driving three
> hours in the mountains and heat, the car didn't have time to cool down?
>

System might be low on Freon. Enough pressure to cause the compressor to
kick in, but not enough to keep it engaged very long?

Good Luck,
Pat