My wife's 98' Quattro's AC is blowing hot air.

Question: if the Aux fan is kicking on when the AC is engaged but blowing out hot air, does it only need Freon?

Is this a more complicated issue?

 

If you plan on working on your own ac, I highly suggest getting a set of R143a manifold gauges. They will cost you 50-100 dollars but are well worth the price. There could be many different reasons why you are getting hot air. To name a few: blocked/bad expansion valve/orafice tube, plugged condensor, low freon, bad compressor, bad relay.... If you have the manifold gauge set, you will be able to widdle that list down and eventually figure out your problem.

This is a basic check list to follow in order (my order), proceed down the list if you answer no to the above item.

1. Is the compressor turning on? If so for how long? Use gauages to check freon level.
2. Is the compressor getting power? If so, check freon level, if ok, then check low pressure switch.
3. Check relay and any fuses.

If the compressor is turning on, but the low pressure side is getting hot, not cold then you have a plugged expansion valve/orafice tube.

This is in no way meant to be detailed, but just a few suggestions. If you can be more specific about what the compressor is doing, what the high/low pipes leaving the compressor feels like, I can try to help you out. I am no expert, but have worked on many A/C systems and I hate them.

Jeff

 

Thanks Jeff. Acutally I don't know much about it other than what my wife told me. I will be looking at it today after work. If it's complicated, should I just take it to an indy mechanic?

 

That depends, if you don't want to get some gauges then I say take it to an indy. There are cans of freon/oil that come with a gauge built in for a little more money than a regular can of freon. If in fact it is just low, topping it up with one of those cans should do the trick. Keep in mind that the freon originally went somewhere, so it probably will just leak it out again if in fact it was low. But that might take a week or years.

Jeff