1st Gen Durango 1998 - 2003 Durango's

Got a little warm today

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  #41  
Old 07-04-2016, 11:12 AM
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How hot is the condenser getting? Something might be restricting the refrigerant flow (most likely an expansion valve).
 
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Old 07-04-2016, 11:47 PM
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Originally Posted by that_guy
How hot is the condenser getting? Something might be restricting the refrigerant flow (most likely an expansion valve).
Well I would have to say that's the only component that I haven't measured temperatures for. Maybe I can get a reading tomorrow and check the difference from lowest and highest fan speed and what it does to the condenser temperature wise
 
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Old 07-07-2016, 01:36 AM
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Originally Posted by Pspklutch
That is true. But it seems to work fine for everyone else with the Taurus fan.... So what I'm gonna do is replace my expansion valves and my accumulator, clean out the ac system, suck it down and charge it. There are major problems with the ac system that I need to fix anyway so I'm going to do that first. If I still have any issue cooling, I'll address that when I get there. Maybe a custom fan shroud or an hd clutch. If I run my ac on the first or second fan speed, the truck never overheats. Not once. No matter how hot it gets outside. And the ac is cold. Turn the fan speed up higher, the ac gets about 10 degrees warmer and the truck will overheat at 65-70 down the highway. So it is directly related to the ac right now. The condenser never cools down enough to allow the radiator to cool down. I never get any condensation on any of my ac lines going to or from the evaporator. I used to, but not anymore. I do occasionally get condensation on the high side ac line to the rear ac unit after the expansion valve. Which should be the case. But only happens when the rear ac is working which is directly affected by the temperature outside.
At the first and 2nd speed settings, the A/C will cycle. Thus no issues with overheating. When you hit the 3rd or highest setting, then the A/C will run much longer and less cycling. Thus your eventual overheating issue when do you are in stop and go traffic. So the A/C is behaving normally. Low air flow thru the cooling coil will cause the A/C to cycle to prevent freezing up of the cooling coil. But high air flow will cause the A/C to run continuously as it continuously cools the air without freezing.

I noticed today when I was stuck in DFW traffic, my onboard temp says 117 degrees outside. I guess that is a lot of heat recycling from my Truck and the heat generated by the vehicles around me as we are all stuck in traffic. Luckily the HD fan help up and still kept my temperature at 190 with A/C running. Once we got moving along, temperature dropped back to the real ambient temperature in the upper 90's.
 
  #44  
Old 07-07-2016, 01:01 PM
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Kensai,

My compressor never cycles above 80 degrees unless I'm driving down the highway with the fan on low speed. There is something wrong with the ac system. My rear air will be ice cold up to about 85 degrees then it goes hot. It's done that since I've owned it. I've got new parts coming in tomorrow and Saturday so this weekend I've got a project. I can keep the truck cool by adjusting things. But I'm at the point that I've gotta keep me cool now. I work outside every day all day and have a 40 minute drive home a lot of the time so a poorly cooling ac is not what I wanna jump into at the end of the day lol. Not trying to be argumentative, but something is causing a restriction somewhere in my ac lines and is causing the problems that I'm having. Now I hope that fixing that will help my overheating problem, and I think that it will. And If not, HD clutch it is because I'm just as tired of fighting with it as I am typing out all these messages
 
  #45  
Old 07-07-2016, 09:23 PM
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psp,

Based on the info you provided, I suspect your freon is contaminated (most likely moisture). Before you go changing out a/c equipment, see if you can have your system evacuated (pulled into a vacuum for a couple of hours) and then put in fresh clean freon... Contaminated freon will cause freon flow blockage within the system causing your a/c not to cool.
 
  #46  
Old 07-07-2016, 11:27 PM
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Well the price on the parts isn't bad. It's not worth it to tear into the system and spend the money on new freon and not put new parts in. Because if it doesn't fix it, then it's more wasted in freon. We cleaned the ac system out and sucked it down and recharged when I got the truck. Replaced the compressor then. But the ac has been this way all along. As well as that, it just turned over 250,000 miles Sunday so it's not too big of deal to replace a few parts in the ac system lol
 
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Old 07-12-2016, 09:21 PM
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Well I think I have a bad compressor. Any ideas would help to try and diagnose anything else because I don't wanna buy a new compressor If that's the problem, I'll buy it but that's a lot of money to be spending right now. I put the brand new expansion valves in as well as the drier. Put the correct amount of oil in the system. Then put 30 ounces of 134 in (little by little) and ended up with 140psi on the high side and 60 on the low side. Not good. So I added a little more slowly. Now I know Im well over 30 ounces but I figured I would try to fix the problem... My high side went up to about 175 but my low side also went up to about 65. Manual reads 25-35 on low and 175 to I believe 225 on high. Manual also says highest temp at left side vent should be 54. Anything under 60 I would think would be acceptable. Ive got 75-80 in the front vents and 80-85 in the rear vents. always stays at a 5 degree difference front to rear.

So I think the only thing that would cause that exact problem would be a bad compressor. Any other Ideas?
 
  #48  
Old 07-12-2016, 09:34 PM
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What's the ambient temp, and are you measuring pressures at idle or 1500rpm? The low side does seem a bit higher than normal there if that's at 1500rpm.

Also, putting in more refrigerant isn't going to solve the problem. In fact it might hurt things.
 

Last edited by that_guy; 07-12-2016 at 10:03 PM.
  #49  
Old 07-13-2016, 07:13 AM
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I converted my '99 Durango to a Flex-a-lite 180 E-fan... Have been having overheat issues with it when it's over 110 degrees (and it gets that way often in Nevada). The shroud only covers about 70% or so of the radiator. Going to put back the factory clutch and shroud back on until I get a custom made shroud that I can fit over the entire radiator. I have my fan controller wired straight to the battery so sometimes it will run for 15-20 minutes after I shut it off. Just pissed that I've got over $300 into an e-fan that will only work in Canada...
 
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Old 07-13-2016, 08:24 AM
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Originally Posted by that_guy
What's the ambient temp, and are you measuring pressures at idle or 1500rpm? The low side does seem a bit higher than normal there if that's at 1500rpm.

Also, putting in more refrigerant isn't going to solve the problem. In fact it might hurt things.
Ambient temp was 90. The low side pressure would barely change from idle to 15-1800 rpm. It would go down about 3 psi is all. And yeh there's too much freon in the system. It was just hard to believe that a single system is 1.75 lbs and a double is 1.88 lbs. I'm gonna bleed some freon out. But it didn't make a difference in the inside air temps whatsoever.
 


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