Car:
1998 Contour SVT
121,000+ miles
Short version:
Whenever I accelerate from a stop, regardless of how hard I push the gas, my A/C stops blowing cold and only sends out warm air. Until I turn off the A/C, let it sit for a few minutes, and then turn it back on, the system will not blow cold air.
Not so short version:
When I'm idling in my car, driving down the interstate, or driving at a steady pace the A/C unit blows cold air. Whenever I come to a stop, and then accelerate again, the cold air cuts out and only warm air blows. This happens regardless of how hard I accelerate, and this evening driving from work I took it extra easy getting up to speed and the air still switched to warm. I have to turn off the A/C, let the system sit for a minute, and then turn it back on during steady driving before I'll get cold air again.
As a final test after work, at a stop light I left the A/C on, came up to speed, and then let the system run. It never switched to cold air, but instead after a few minutes I detected a faint burning smell (!). Once I was home and put the hood up, the burning smell was very noticable (!!).
I've done some searching through the forums here and the universal suggestion was that the R-134a was low. I have a recharge kit, hooked it up this evening after the engine cooled down, and took a pressure reading. It remained steady at about 40 PSI with the Max A/C on and the fan set to High, which apprently is normal from what I've read here about Contours. I let the car idle for several minutes, the pressure stayed steady, and only cold air came through the vents.
Does anyone have any ideas? Things I should check? I'm not sure where to go from here.
Thanks for the help...
