Air Conditioning Problems

[Shark]

About a month ago I turned on my car and noticed that the A\C wasn't blowing cold. The fan was working, I just wasn't getting cold air. I checked to make sure that the A\C was on, which it was, and eventually I got it blowing cold again by hitting the A\C button twice to turn it off and on again. This is a premium BRZ btw, so I have the no frills A\C system. The next couple times I started the car there wasn't an issue so I tried not to worry about it. But it happened again within a few days. I tried the same trick but this time it didn't work. I ended up turning the fan off and on and this time that fixed it. It ended up happening again either the next time I got in the car or soon after, and this time I couldn't get it to blow cold no matter what I tried. And every time I got in the car after that the A\C never cooled.

I ended up taking it to the dealer. They had it for a week. At first they weren't able to replicate it, I guess maybe it worked for them to begin with. A few days into them having the car they told me that they weren't sure what was wrong and that they were talking with Subaru to figure out what they could try.

They ended up replacing the compressor. I've had the car back for a couple weeks now and everything seemed fine until the other morning. I got in the car and again it wouldn't blow cold air. I tried some of the same tricks I tried before but nothing worked so I gave up. Then maybe 10-15 minutes into the trip it just started suddenly working. The only thing I noticed this time was that it started raining pretty heavily a few seconds before. I don't know if there's any correlation with this, I was thinking maybe the temperature difference could be relevant.

Right now I'm just waiting because it has come on each time I've started the car since then. I know there's obviously still a problem, but it's not easily replicated right now. Has anyone else had any similar issues? Or maybe any theories on what it could be? My initial thought was that it's an electrical problem, but that's just a guess. Whatever it is, it's pretty frustrating since the car is brand new, just hit the 3000 mile mark the other day.

[fistpoint]

Ouch, and in Texas no less. Well, be thankful it's happening now so there is plenty of time until Hell weather returns.

[Shark]

So I think the dealership has finally fixed my problem. I wanted to share the solution with everyone in case someone else comes across the same issue. It took taking the car in 3 times to finally get the a/c fixed, but it looks like it's finally working.

So they replaced the compressor the first time I took it in at the end of last summer, which it turns out didn't help. On an unusually warm day a few weeks ago I tried to use the a/c for the first time in a while and couldn't get it to work. So I took the car back in and explained everything again. Unfortunately the service guy was rushed and wasn't paying a lot of attention. They ended up replacing the blower motor, which didn't sound right to me. But I went along with it since they know more about this stuff than I do.

I got the car back and the a/c didn't work the first time I tried it. Actually it didn't work any time I tried it. I took it back and asked to have one of the techs ride with me so I could explain the problem to them. Apparently the service manager had said that I wasn't getting any airflow, which is why they replaced the blower motor.

I left the car with them again and they figured out that one of my relays was bad. Apparently there are two relays, one for the a/c and one for the horn. They swapped the relays and my horn stopped working and my compressor started working.

I knew it seemed like an electrical problem. I guess I should have gone straight to the tech from the beginning. Oh well, at least it's fixed now.

[humfrz]

Originally Posted by Shark

So I think the dealership has finally fixed my problem..............
I left the car with them again and they figured out that one of my relays was bad. Apparently there are two relays, one for the a/c and one for the horn. They swapped the relays and my horn stopped working and my compressor started working. .........

Well, Shark, good to hear your A/C is working.

What was the dealership thinking ?? ......... a bad relay ..... REALLY !! ...... who woulda thunk .. ?? ...... ...... ...on them .....


humfrz

[Norton 850]

Thanks for sharing the solution with us there Shark. I'm really surprised that it took two trips to the dealer to get a simple problem fixed.

Jason

[Rubbish]

Bumping an old thread because I've been having the same issues as shark did. I bought my frs without warranty (car has 61k) 5 months ago, I've been trying to find this ac relay shark was talking about but I can't find it for the life of me. I took the frs to my local Toyota dealer but their wanting to charge me 120 just to look at it. Anyone else having/had issues? Any help is much appreciated

[Tcoat]

Originally Posted by Rubbish

Bumping an old thread because I've been having the same issues as shark did. I bought my frs without warranty (car has 61k) 5 months ago, I've been trying to find this ac relay shark was talking about but I can't find it for the life of me. I took the frs to my local Toyota dealer but their wanting to charge me 120 just to look at it. Anyone else having/had issues? Any help is much appreciated

Fuse box by passenger side fender under hood. Relay #5.

[humfrz]

Nice reply, there @Tcoat .....


@Rubbish ....... you get a for not reading the manual.




humfrz

[Rubbish]

^^ thanks guys, I looked in the fuse box but I guess I didn't look hard enough

[mdm]

I might be wrong, but @Shark mentioned that the problem was in a relay, and @Tcoat is showing fuses. These are different things, and relays are shown but not marked in the manual. They are the grey unmarked boxes.


To identify relays, you should refer to this picture:



Note that it is rotated 90 degress, compare labels on fuses above to fuse labels in the manual to get yourself oriented.

[Impureclient]

Much time has passed but did the OPs horn ever work again?

[Packofcrows]

Thank you. My ac kicks in and off too much. I know at start it's ok for first few seconds but it did it for 20min I had it idling. Relay was bad. Now to find a replacement

[ermax]

Old thread I know but I just went through the same ordeal with my car. I got my car in October and spun a rod bearing before it really got hot here in Florida. I just got it back on the road and noticed the compressor wasn’t running. I figured I damaged the line by pushing the AC off the side when pulling the engine so I checked the refrigerant first. It was a tad low so I charged it a little and I thought it was fixed but then after the engine bay got hot the compressor stopped and refused to come back on. So I connected Techstream and could see that the ECU had the clutch on but it wasn’t actually. In Techstream there is a test for the clutch where you can toggle it on and off manually with the engine off. That wasn’t working. So I swapped the horn and Ac relay and now I have an intermittent horn but the ac is working again. I’m glad it wasn’t one of the lines that was damaged because I had to bend the rubber portion of the AC lines more than I would have liked to clear the engine.

Those relays are a bitch to get out. I had to make a tool to get them out. Took a super thin metal ruler and folded a 1mm tab on the end of it and was able to slide it down the side of the relay and hook the bottom.

[FRSBRZGT86FAN]

Originally Posted by ermax

Old thread I know but I just went through the same ordeal with my car. I got my car in October and spun a rod bearing before it really got hot here in Florida. I just got it back on the road and noticed the compressor wasn’t running. I figured I damaged the line by pushing the AC off the side when pulling the engine so I checked the refrigerant first. It was a tad low so I charged it a little and I thought it was fixed but then after the engine bay got hot the compressor stopped and refused to come back on. So I connected Techstream and could see that the ECU had the clutch on but it wasn’t actually. In Techstream there is a test for the clutch where you can toggle it on and off manually with the engine off. That wasn’t working. So I swapped the horn and Ac relay and now I have an intermittent horn but the ac is working again. I’m glad it wasn’t one of the lines that was damaged because I had to bend the rubber portion of the AC lines more than I would have liked to clear the engine.

Those relays are a bitch to get out. I had to make a tool to get them out. Took a super thin metal ruler and folded a 1mm tab on the end of it and was able to slide it down the side of the relay and hook the bottom.

Pro-tip, if you mod cars quite a bit and spend alot of time wiring these come in handy:

https://www.amazon.com/OTC-4493-Angl...KWMG5NQK36DKQS

https://www.amazon.com/Lisle-46950-R.../dp/B002NR2Z56


For the longest time I used forks, or metal bent tabs till i got a set from harbor freight