IcemanG17

On the way home from the autocross today I was enjoying some wonderful a/c....nice and cool on a 90 degree day....then I get home and turn off the a/c, but still have the fan on...notice the cool "cloud" come out of the main vent...no biggie, I've seen that before....when unloading the car I notice the passenger side air vent is VERY moist....I mean ALOT...when you stick your fingers in the dash or door side vent it gets really wet...??? Cold too

So I check the main vent and its dry....& so is the drivers side vent.....what would cause this?

Richard S

Slow autocross times?.... The car is doing this>>>>>

Rich

IcemanG17

Rich
Good one, but not exactly the ADVICE I was looking for

I think my complete lack of autocross skills & explains how bad my times were!!

Didn't your a/c do something like this a while back?

Richard S

Brian, I haven't experienced a wet vent yet, just had a cloud of vapor come out the center vent as I went up Donner Summit.....like a fog rolling in.

Rich

joejoe

Perhaps the condenser is freezing up a bit but not draining from catch tray when defrosting.

IcemanG17

I was thinking this too.....there was one point shortly before the end of the drive where it seems to cycle the compressor off for a short bit......

ZEUS+

If the evaporator iced up, the freeze switch stopped current flow to compressor until evap temp went above 35.

SharkSkin

Sounds pretty normal -- the evaporator was not condensing all of the water out of the air, so it was condensing on various cold surfaces. To eliminate this problem, switch to fresh air(non-AC, non-recirc) for the last couple miles before home.

IcemanG17

Dave
This makes ALOT of sense...since I was running only on recirc (65) the whole way and I just turned the fan down to 1 and still froze in the car......I should have moved the temp to 70 to turn off the recirc and cool fresh air......

So I guess the passenger vent is the coldest in that area for some reason....since it was wet and VERY cold....I should have taken a temp reading....

ZEUS+

An evaporators primary purposes are to remove heat from interior and to dehumidify. Moisture from the air condenses on the coils and water drains out. The evaporator does not condense anything. If compressor cut out, evaporator was to cold.

SharkSkin

The part in red above is not correct; the condensation is on the exterior of the coil (dehumidifies the air this way).

ZEUS+

Moisture collects on the evaporator coils and drains out of vehicle through the evap drain. Have not seen a vehicle with ac yet, that does not fuction this way. It is correct. Moisture from the air collects on the evaporator coils. Condensation happens, nothing is condensed by the evaporator.

Bill Ball

Oh, hey, I though I'd do an honest report of vent temps. We've been seeing ridiculous numbers using the infrared thermometers after AC jobs at my house. They have a lot of trouble with shiny black surfaces. Made us chuckle with joy to see 16F even though I knew it wasn't right. I even got -1F one time. Well, today it was 95+ outside and I stuck an analog AC thermometer in the vent as I drove along with the AC chillin'. The thermometer eventually read 20F at one point and spent most of the time between 20 and 30F. LORD ALMIGHTY! No fog or mist, but I have to wonder about my freeze switch.

IcemanG17

Bill
20-30F on a 95 day......65-75F differentials....wow thats impressive......impossible in theory but impressive.....your freeze switch has to be shot....but how do they fail? Fail by not working or fail by not letting the compressor turn on?

SteveG

Dave, that is exactly what Zeus is saying. And the sentence immediately before the red says that ???

I'm wondering about Bill's freeze switch too. Well besides the switch, how can the temp be that cold and not freeze the system?