I was visiting family in Indiana over the weekend. On the way down(4 hour drive) I had the A/C on low the whole way. Worked flawlessly! As a matter of fact, always has worked flawlessly! I didn't drive it once while there. The Durango sat for 2 1/2 days.

When I left, I turned the air on hi and noticed that it was not cooling off like it should. The air was cool but not cold. I had to run the front and rear A/C on hi also just to keep almost comfortable. While driving, I periodically reached back to feel the air coming out of the rear vents and it was slightly cooler than the front.

I got home and pulled into the garage and a little while later noticed a huge puddle of water that was coming out of the right rear drain tube. Haven't seen that much before. The front puddle was normal size. Also, on the way home, the A/C was making a noise that I could hear from the inside, but not so much from the outside.

As of today, there is no A/C. A leak somewhere...

Thoughts...

Thanks in advance!

 

A large puddle generally means that the evaporator froze up and accumulated a lot of ice on it. The A/C won't cool because no air will come through. Having said that when you turn it on the next day it should of been fine. Dose the A/C clutch engage if so dose the E fan come on? If the clutch dosn't engage when you first turn it on then it is probly low on freon. If it dose engage but stops and the e fan dose not come on in a few seconds then the compressor will shut down do to high pressure.

 

+1. It was froze.

My bet is you had the AC on Max setting running the low fan. Max setting requires one of the top two fan speeds. It used to be documented in the manual. Nothing to worry about once it thawed out as long as it is working fine. Just remember, Max requires one of the top two fan speeds.

HTH,

IndyDurango

 

Indy,

I disagree, the max setting means maximum cooling which will use recirculated cabin air mode to maximize cooling. If you use other cooling modes other than max, it will draw ambient air from outside into the cabin.

I always use the first two of the lowest fan settings to keep comfortable and quiet in max cool mode. I only use high fan settings to initall cool down the cabin if the Durango has been sitting outside for a bit and the cabin is hot.

This problem indicates your low side pressure switch may not be working. Your low side pressure switch should have turned off your compressor when your evaporator starts to freeze. Usually this indicates your cabin has cooled down quite a bit.

Remember that temperature and pressure are proportaional to each other. When the temp in your cabin drops, so does the pressure in the freon going to the evaporator. Once the pressure drops enough where it starts to freeze the evaporator, the low pressure cutoff switch should engage to disconnect power to the compressor to prevent freeze up.

You can also check under the hood to see if the compressor is cycling on/off if your fan speed is on low and your cabin has cooled down. If it is not cycling, the low side line back to the compressor will start to to freeze due to the low pressure switch not working properly.

 

Hey guys,

Thanks for the responses! I did not notice if I had it on Max air while on my trip. I did check last night and the E fan does come on. I also see the clutch spinning but now there is not a drop of cool air coming out of the vents.

I would assume that the freon level is low but, all of a sudden? I would also guess that there is a leak somewhere. Am I correct?

 

You need to take to some one that can put a set of gauges on it an see where the problem is. Good luck.
If it is low there is a leak.

 

Kensai, disagree all you want however max AC should only be used on the top two fan speed settings. As I mentioned, it used to be in one of the years manuals even and I know of a personal situation where it was pointed out by the dealer to the owner in the same situation.

Remember, we are talking multi hour long distance trips. Not runs to Walmart and back. When driving long distances, on Max AC, use only the top two fan speeds.

IndyD

 

Indy,

I been in the HVAC business for a long time, I never heard of that before.

Example, imports, there is no such thing as max cooling mode. You just have your normal low to high speed fan setting. Then you have the recirculating air mode or external air mode.

I know on the Durangos, and alot of older model GM vehicles, when you use max mode, you are using recirculating air mode. When in max mode, the a/c system is much louder in the cabin because you can definitely hear the air being sucked back in from the passenger side area. You can cool down the cabin really fast as you are only absorbing the heated air from the cabin only. Normal cooling mode on these Durangos will not recirculate air from the cabin and only draw fresh air from outside into the cabin.

I personally never use normal cooling mode and leave it on max mode or recirculating mode and set my fan to the lower two speed setting only because the pollution and quality of the air driving around Dallas sux and when you are stuck in gridlock traffic, you end up sucking in someone else's exhaust fumes. I only use recirculating mode on all my vehicles when driving around Dallas. I've been doing this to all my vehicles for many many years and never had any issues.

I think the only reasoning for having the fan speeds at the upper two speeds on max mode is to prevent constant compressor cycling. Once you have reached your comfort level, I suppose you have to switch it to normal mode and pull in constant warm external air into the cabin which will not cycle the compressor as often.

 

Remember all discussion here is DURANGO specific. I know life experiences sometimes feel contrary to actual DURANGO results. Again, all I ever am providing detail for is the DURANGO. All other areas and results may vary and may or may not apply.

Why does the D run terrible at low idle becasue the battery is bad? Because it does. Never heard that on other cars, but perfectly acceptable as the correct diagnosis on the Durango. Same with a frozen AC setup using max AC on low fan driving multiple hours.

 

Don't mind me, only watchin the show!