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AC Intermittently Working

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Care, Maintenance and Troubleshooting' started by dsmwookie, Sep 26, 2017.

  1. dsmwookie

    dsmwookie Junior Member

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    My old compressor gave up a while ago and I had the whole system replaced. It still holds a charge and will blow very cold at times. Often I will start the car and the AC compressor kicks on or it's not receiving enough power to fully function. Can anyone provide a source for maintenance specs? I'd like to test how much power is going to the compressor. The copy of All Data that I have does not contain any information on the air conditioning or inverter specifications.

    Second, a year or two ago the inverter coolant pump went out. I don't know if I damaged the inverter during this time and it's now rearing it's head, but I suspect this as the problem.
     
    #1 dsmwookie, Sep 26, 2017
  2. SFO

    SFO Senior Member

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    Yes, start by checking the condition of the inverter pump.

    When the inverter starts to overheat it cuts power to the AC, once the inverter has cooled down enough the AC receives power again and works until the overheating cycle repeats.
     
    #2 SFO, Sep 27, 2017
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  3. dsmwookie

    dsmwookie Junior Member

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    The inverter pump is only a year old. Still a good idea to confirm it's working. My real question is how to test the inverter and it's different components.
     
    #3 dsmwookie, Sep 27, 2017
  4. SFO

    SFO Senior Member

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    You can check by looking at the reservoir liquid surface for a slight turbulence, or try touching the inverter pump with your hand.

    Are you sure the R/R of the inverter pump included proper purging of residual air in the system?

    Have you checked for codes lately?

    Does the AC always work when you first drive in the morning?
     
    #4 SFO, Sep 27, 2017
  5. dsmwookie

    dsmwookie Junior Member

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    SFO, the AC doesn't always work in the morning. Sometimes it works and works fine all day, but if I turn the car off it won't work again for the rest of the day or until a random turn on/off. I'll pull the codes again this evening.

    If you have advice on proper purging of the air, I'll do it. I used to be a mechanic and simply didn't have the time so paid someone to perform the job.
     
    #5 dsmwookie, Oct 3, 2017
  6. edthefox5

    edthefox5 Senior Member

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    I like SFO's post but if the Inverter cut out it would throw a boatload of lights on the dash. If you have no codes logged no dash lights no turtle on the mfd its probably a pure ac issue. Btw whats the state of charge look like on hybrid battery on the the battery screen on the mfd?
    You didn't post the year of the car.

    And lastly are you talking about the ac fan blower or do you still have good blower its just blowing hot air?
     
    #6 edthefox5, Oct 3, 2017
  7. dsmwookie

    dsmwookie Junior Member

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    It's a 2007, it blows fine (replaced blower a while ago), the air is hot. The charge is to factory specifications.

    The charge seems rather weak on the battery. It seems to fall low rather quickly.
     
    #7 dsmwookie, Oct 3, 2017
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  8. WilDavis

    WilDavis Senior Member

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    When I read "intermittently" in the title, I was reminded of the ancient anecdote where Mike asked his Irish friend Paddy to help him check out the flashing indicators on his car to make sure they worked correctly, so Mike got in, turned on the ignition and set the flashers going, and Paddy walked around to the front of the car, and reports back to Mike "…yes, they're working! Oh, no they're not! Oh, yes, they are! Oh, no they're not!" etc. etc. :ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO::)
     
    #8 WilDavis, Oct 3, 2017
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  9. edthefox5

    edthefox5 Senior Member

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    yeah you may have bigger fish to fry real soon....mine was the same charge level would purple really fast in a drive thru. I bought the Prolong Hybrid Battery charger/discharger and it really woke the battery up. Been about 6 months now and still going really well. Much better charge behavior. You have a small window to use that charger the window being the car has not thrown a bad battery module delta error code and all of a sudden your thinking battery rebuild or new. Total pia.
     
    #9 edthefox5, Oct 3, 2017
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  10. dsmwookie

    dsmwookie Junior Member

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    Update: AC has been working flawlessly for a week or two. I live in Alabama and I don't know if it's correlated with the fall weather or just sheer coincidence. Temperatures are quite high during the summer though and the big battery has a lot of work to stay cool.
     
    #10 dsmwookie, Oct 6, 2017
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