Q: Air conditioning blowing hot. 2006 Scion tC

asked by on September 01, 2016

My air conditioning has been blowing hot for a few weeks now. It seems like the ac clutch is not engaging. What can I check to find out how to fix this problem?

My car has 140000 miles.
My car has an automatic transmission.

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If your A/C compressor clutch isn’t engaging, the most common cause is low refrigerant in the system. The only way to check this is to connect an expensive machine to your car, remove the refrigerant and weigh it. Doing other electrical tests (which would be what follows if the system is full) would be in vain when it could simply be a low refrigerant. We can force the system on, but doing this will require gauges to read the high and low pressures. This can reveal a low system, but connecting gauges is the first step in recovering refrigerant and weighing it. Not to mention servicing your A/C in this way is like changing your oil.

I would recommend checking all of your fuses. Yes, all of them. Many fuses will power other fuses. So even if you check only the fuses marked A/C, there could still be a fuse blown that powers that one. So check them all with a test light.

If you need to have this all scoped out for you, a certified professional from YourMechanic can diagnose the AC system at your home or office and follow through with any needed repairs.

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