Odd Air Con Problem

[tmwsccsh]

Hi all,

Having recently had some alternator / starter woes, when I got the car back the AC had mysteriously started working. And then it stopped. And now it's working again, but then it's not...

The full story - and apologies if I go on a bit here - someone once said my initials of TMW stood for Too Many Words! 

Anyway, the Alternator belt frayed and caused some damage to the car - new alternatorand power steering pump needed, as well as a new alternator belt. These were fitted and when I got him back the AC, which had not worked for over 6 years (although was checked by wechillanycar.com in December and suggested a new compressor was needed - which was fitted with no change!) had mysteriously started working - I was well chuffed!

First journey I did was down to London - about an hour from here - and around 30 minutes in, the cold air stopped and it was just fans blowing whatever air was there. This remained so I thought it was just a fluke that it had started working again for that initial period and was resigned to a non-AC'd car once more (as I was already used to).

Next morning, he wouldn't start and I had had a battery light on the dash come on the night before - just click click click when turning to position 3. The garage came over, got him started and took him away. New starter motor fitted and back he came. AC was working again! However, after about half an hour of using the car (interestingly, not one journey, but half an hour or so combined) the cold air stopped once again and the blower at whatever the abient was.

Next morning wouldn't start again - same thing click click click. They came back again, fiddled with the starter motor cable and he fired up. He went away, I did some reading, they did some reading and we have replaced the positive battery cable to the alternatorand starter motor. Got him back Tuesday and all good (starts much better now and sounds better too!) and the AC was working again!

But, once more, after around 30 minutes use (not all the same journey) the cold air has ceased and it's just ambient blower again. But on the positive side he has now started on the key every time since I got him back so I am convinced that the battery lead change has fixed the starting / battery light issues once and for all. Interestingly on this 30 minute time, it was about 15 minutes driving the day I got him back with AC working fine, but it then stopped working about 15 minutes or so into the journey to work the next morning - started off nice and cold!

Now, I have a theory that if I disconnect the battery for a short while (as they would have had to each time they were changing something out and definitely did as I needed to re-enter the radio code each time I got him back) and reconnect it the AC will probably come back to life - for about 30 minutes or so... But I don't want to do that as, because all is working and starting fine again, I don't want to do any potential damage to anything.

So, summary.

Car goes away, battery disconnected, car comes back, AC works for 30 or so minutes then is just ambient.

Car goes away again, battery disconnected, car comes back, AC works for 30 or so minutes then is just ambient.

Car goes away a 3rd time, battery disconnected, car comes back, AC works for 30 or so minutes then is just ambient.

Clearly the AC system in the car does work, to an extent, but I would really like it working all the time.

Has anyone seen anything like this before or got any ideas of what I could do to possibly sort this once and for all? Guess there must be a fuse thinking about it that I can pull to cut power to something initially rather than disconnecting so doing that for a while and then seeing if the AC system comes back on line could be a starter for 10 - but which fuse(s)?

Thanks in advance for a hopeful positive pointer.

Regards

TMW

[tmwsccsh]

Quick update.

I saw in another thread on AC issues it was suggested to swap the Horn and AC relays over.

Amazingly, I now have working AC and not a working Horn.

Off to Halfrauds shortly to see if they have a replacement.

Potentially a good result and annoying that the wechillanycar.com guy didn't think to do this and it's also annoying that I could have potentially had working AC 6 years ago!

TMW