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2006 AC troubleshooting

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Care, Maintenance and Troubleshooting' started by laird, Jun 30, 2014.

  1. laird

    laird Junior Member

    Joined:
    Jun 10, 2009
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    Location:
    oregon
    Vehicle:
    2006 Prius
    Model:
    N/A


    My 2006 has some sort of AC issue that the Wilsonville OR shop wanted to charge $1600 to fix. I'm not sure it's worth that much to me.

    I had the car in a generic import shop for some other work and they were not able to find the issue. So.... I'm wondering what I should do to pursue this. Maybe someone on this board would have seen this behavior before:

    The AC seems to run and initially produce lots of cold air. The sight glass fills up with liquid and tiny bubbles. Over time (20 minutes), the AC will stop producing cold air. The compressor continues to make what I think is the normal sound.

    I've replaced compressors on other cars in the past and have thoughts about getting my local shop to extract my freon and installing a used compressor myself. The cars I've fixed in the past either had a leak or a bad compressor. This seems to be something else and I'm not sure what diagnostic info is available.

    I have a standard OBD wifi dongle but I'm assuming that's not the correct unit to be able to read AC related diagnostic codes.

    Thanks!

    Alan
     
    #1 laird, Jun 30, 2014
  2. vertex

    vertex Active Member

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    Prime Plus
    It does not seem like the compressor since it runs for 20 minutes OK. Something is causing the system to shutdown. Did you check that your fans are running? If the evaporator gets too hot it will turn off the AC.
     
    #2 vertex, Jul 5, 2014
  3. laird

    laird Junior Member

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    Location:
    oregon
    Vehicle:
    2006 Prius
    Model:
    N/A
    Thanks! That sounds like something to look at.

    Is there a diagnostic port for that kind of data or would it be just something to observe?

    Alan
     
    #3 laird, Jul 6, 2014
  4. Britprius

    Britprius Senior Member

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    Location:
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    Vehicle:
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    Has the car had any front end damage repaired.

    John (Britprius)
     
    #4 Britprius, Jul 6, 2014
  5. laird

    laird Junior Member

    Joined:
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    Location:
    oregon
    Vehicle:
    2006 Prius
    Model:
    N/A
    Hi John,

    It has a small fender scrape on the right corner where I nicked a curb while parking. About 2" up and 10 long. Nothing otherwise.

    I plugged in my elm obdii scanner but can't find a sensor for fan speed. I can't hear a fan when the ac pump is on. Eyeballing fuses to see if I have an issue there.

    Thanks,

    Alan
     
    #5 laird, Jul 8, 2014
  6. laird

    laird Junior Member

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    Location:
    oregon
    Vehicle:
    2006 Prius
    Model:
    N/A
    Pulled the relay and heard the fans stop so they seem to be working correctly.

    Coolant is hanging out around 88C

    Alan
     
    #6 laird, Jul 8, 2014
  7. Britprius

    Britprius Senior Member

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    When you stand in front of the car with the AC on and the fans running is warm air being blown out of the engine bay through the front grill towards you? Or is air being blown into the engine bay? Holding tissue paper in front of the grill will tell you.

    John (Britprius)
     
    #7 Britprius, Jul 9, 2014
  8. KhaPhoRa

    KhaPhoRa Member

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    Vehicle:
    2006 Prius
    Model:
    II
    It could be low coolant as well.. There is a point where too low a level of r134a will cause the evaporator to freeze over.. Cooling will be reduced as this happens until it's frozen completely.. Right before mine died (a tiny hole in the condenser leaked out the oil even though plenty of coolant was left behind (not sure how to be honest) and killed my compressor) my ac ran incredibly cold and I was admiring it just hours before cursing it 180 miles from home after a looong day working in the sun. :)
    Oh, and for what it's worth my compressor sounded normal and was running even though it was not working.
     
    #8 KhaPhoRa, Jul 9, 2014
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