2005 Prius A/C issue

No need to floor the car rev the engine The compressor is electric It works by the HV battery and inverter. So when it switched on it's just on now you want to be driving if your HV battery is not real stout knew whatever. So just sitting around in the parking lot with the air on is not cool well you might be cool but it's not good for the car really people do it all the time but it's just running the battery down running the engine to charge the battery etcetera repeat all of that but okay do you know where the sight glass is on the air conditioner? Have your wife or other half sit in the car ready the car and while you're standing over the sight glass Tell her to turn the air on full blast low not on 76 or 74 on l o a c and high fan recirculate mode would be good The minute she turns on the air if you need to put your hand on the compressor you can do so it will not shock or bite you there's no belt You should feel the compressor come on and you should see in the sight glass some bubbles and foam move through and then it should almost clear up and this should happen within seconds Very carefully look at the sight glass again if you have to turn the system off wait 5 minutes and do the test again You want to see the foam and or the bubbles and then it almost goes clear You really have to look to see and he commotion in the sight glass and at this time the fat hoes which is right next to the skinny hose and the sight glass you're looking at the fat hoe should be getting cold. Like refrigeration type cold starting to sweat and drip water very quickly and wifey should feel cold air in the car if this is not the case you may need to add gas or if you're not comfortable messing around take it to a place and make sure it is possible that your compressor is not pumping the freon. But usually when this is going on the compressor will seem to run into oblivion wind out at wild speeds and maybe stop and then start again and do it again like it's trying to pump something and it can't because it's maybe wore out it is possible If you have gas and it maintains its volume or amount in the system more or less and your compressor is coming on but you're making no cold as a good chance your compressor is just not pumping the gas well enough

 

Yes you won't see bubbles and you won't see clearing until the compressor is running and pumping reasonably properly in an air conditioning system there's no high and low side when the compressors at rest the system is off The pressures on the high and low side will be the same That's a fact You're high and low side is created when the compressor and pump is pumping gas You can see that with gauges but this is no matter for this conversation although a low side gauge might be a good thing to have because you can put it onto the low side fat fitting marked l then you can see about 100 lb showing at rest If your gauge was capable and you can fit it on the high side it would show the same pressure. Point blank. Now you see a hundred pounds on the low side turn on the air conditioner wide open on low high fan fresh air The minute the compressor kicks in that hundred pound on your low gauge should run down to about 30 maybe 36 and hold steady Is that what happens? That'll be a start sounds to me like your compressor's running and it's not pumping the gas enough. Very basic problem probably replace the compressor and you're golden. I get used ones out of Prius all the time haven't had a problem so far knock on whatever.

 

So you have 36 on the low side and you have a nice cool cold fat hose from the compressor pulling into the car.? You can see sweat on that silver metal tube It's cold well that means you're evaporator is getting cold and there's probably some problem with the damper door motor that's keeping that air blowing on the windshield down on your feet stuck in between two positions something now if you got 36 PSI on the low side you don't know what the high is and the fat hose is not ice cold and sweating then your problem still lies with the pumping of the gas it seems like but if you've got cold on the big line then you have fan and or diverter problems which is the thing that moves the air from the different positions You could also have clogs in your fan could be parts of your cabin filter sitting in the fan impeller that would make a noise or could be rats have made a nest in the duct work and won't allow air to blow through All of these things are possible can't see the car from here so if you have cold being made by the compressor on the big line when it's running 36 is about right on the low side so you should have cold under the hood where we're talking about Is it cold? If so then it's a diversion problem or it's a serious blockage your job should you accept is to find what it is.

 

Okay so you're saying the silver pipe the fat one under the hood is just a little cold so that either indicates The compressor can't find enough gas to pump up or there's enough gas to pump up in the compressor is old and tired and it can't I guess some could say they could be problems with the expansion valve but to me that's a stretch every time I've changed and expansion valve it was actually something else that was wrong in the system the expansion valve was fine but that's okay because expansion valves are cheap they're pain to put in a lot of times but. I wouldn't say there's a voltage problem because the compressor's running even if it was a little low you know electrical components usually have a voltage specification plus or minus 10% 8% whatever it is so if you could measure the voltage of your HV battery if it's within 10% you're probably okay on the compressor and then after that it probably wouldn't run or run erratically It sounds like it's running trying to pump it either doesn't have enough stuff to pump or it doesn't have the capability to pump that higher pressure anymore You say it's full then correct air conditioned place said so then I'd have to call the compressor It's not rare but it's not real common If you're in a place where air is used a lot like in south or North Carolina where I am I would say it would probably be a good possibility at 12 or 14 years