My girlfriend has a '98 Plymouth Neon SOHC Auto. Earlier today, the air conditioning suddenly stopped working on it. It went from blowing cold to all of the sudden not working at all. We just had the evaporator replaced and the system tested for leaks and recharged with 134 and its been working great since then. That was only like a month ago. It never showed any signs of running low on refrigerant--reduced cooling, rapid cycling on and off of the compressor, etc. When you put the selector on a/c the fan blows like it should, the electric fans kick on, and the idle rises slightly, everything works like it should. I looked at the car and checked for the obvious-- the a/c belt, fuses and whatever else I could think of. I did discover that in the power distribution center under the hood there is a large relay looking thing (im really not sure what you call it) labeled air conditioning so I'm thinking maybe that went south and thats the problem. Also, if that is the problem I would guess thats a dealer part. Any idea on the cost? I have pretty decent automotive knowledge, but I really dont know jack about Neons so any help would be appreciated.

I hope it not the compressor, this car is a real money pit at only 80K miles--first the head gasket, then the spark plug tubes were leaking, then the evaporator, now this. I know I'm forgetting some stuff too. All this **** has been really expensive to fix too. I'm about done with this POS so please help me out before I go trade it in on a Honda or something. Sorry, I'm venting here. [:@]

 

Update: Luckily I have a '96 Cherokee (XJ) that happens to be parked next to it and it dawned upon me to check the number on her A/C relay (or whatever its called) and see if any in the Cherokees power supply were the same number. Well, I found an exact match and I know everything on the XJ works so I swapped the two relays. There was no change so thats not the problem. Damn, that would have been too easy but at least it saved me from wasting money on an unneeded part.

So any suggestions?
TIA

 

are you absoultely shure it has refrigerant in it? maybe it blew a seal or a gasket and dumped all the refrigerant out of it.

 

Thats what I would think also. If if was just done a month ago, I qould bring it back to who seviced it.

 

I'm plannning on taking it back to the place that serviced it. Luckily, hes a friend of my father and stands behind his work. I've just never seen an air conditioner go from blowing ice cold to suddenly stopping working since thats literally how it happened. We were riding down the road and it was blowing nice and cold on a 90 degree afternoon and then it just all of the sudden quit blowing cold air and the compressor wasnt engaging at all. I guess its possible that it blew out a seal or something, I hadnt thought of that. It just sucks since we just got it fixed for the evaporator leaking and that is such an expensive fix due to all the labor involved. Unfortunely, I'm way too busy to have time to mess with it myself. Thats why I've been having to take it to a mechanic everytime it needs to be fixed. Anything over a few hours I don't have the time for these days.

Can you all think of anything else to look for that would cause it to suddenly stop working like that? Thanks for your replies.

 

Yea, it's a Neon A/C compressor.

I know of a guy who said he replaced the compressor 3 times in 5 years. Mine quit on me on CHRISTMAS DAY when it was 30 degrees out and I wasn't even running it. How do I know it quit? When I pulled into my friend's house, a large cloud of white smoke rolled out of the hood, and then it wouldn't start. Had it towed to a garage and they found out that was the problem, the compressor quit working. So they gave us an option, replace the compressor for 5-800 $$, or put a shorter belt on it for 50 $$. With the fact that these compressors like to just foul up and die on you so rapidly, and the fact it was only 10% of getting it replaced, we went for the short belt. That's probably gonna be your best bet too.

 

Its way too hot and humid with way too much traffic her in Atlanta to not have a/c. Its 93 degrees outside with high humidity right now and thats pretty normal this time of year. A/C is pretty much a necessity around here. I'd like to find the genius at Chrysler who designed the A/C for these cars. Probably the same asshat who designed the head gasket.

 

Haha, I'll give you that one!

Our weather up in Penn. has been rather similar, hovering around 90 and high humidity, so I know exactly what you're talking about. Luckily, where I live, there's usually not too much traffic to bother me as far as A/C is concerned, as I can usually keep moving at about 45 or faster at any given time. However, I did get stuck in construction one day when it was 80 w/ low humidity (spring day when it got real warm) and that felt pretty bad, so I just turned the fans on. Sure, it was blowing warm air off the engine in, but it was a moving breeze and it felt better than sitting still!

 

I wouldn't assume anything is really wrong until you find out how much refrigerant is in it. A/C systems have a built in safeguard that shuts the system off when the refrigerant gets low. This is to protect the compressor since the refrigerant also carries the lubricant. Mines got a slow leak and while it does still have some gas in it the compressor will not engage because the pressure is too low.

 

Unless it suddenly blew a hose or seal out thats not the problem. It literally went from cooling great, just had to turn down the a/c because it was getting to cold (while 90 something degrees out with the sun beating down) to blowing hot air because the compressor will no longer engage. It wasn't cycling on and off rapidly or anything like they do when they are low on refridgerant.

It sucks, its 95 today and the high tomorrow is 97. I don't have time to deal with it right now and my girlfriend needs the car to drive everyday. I can't drive it because I can't have clients in her car with no air conditioning. I hope she can tough it out a few more days, I feel really bad for her.