# Ac not blowing cold, fans not running at a low speed, cheapo ac gauge reads in “alert



## Pezgoon (Mar 7, 2018)

*Ac not blowing cold, fans not running at a low speed, cheapo ac gauge reads in “alert*

2011 Cruze 1.4 has 106k on it, it has had the ac replaced and other bits along with it replaced in the past cause the ac ate itself (replaced 70k)

It was super hot today (98 degrees) and the ac wouldn’t blow cold even while moving, it was sorta alittle cold but not super cold. The fan will run for about 5 seconds then stay off for like 10-15 seconds then run for 5 seconds again so on.

I put on one of the “recharge gauges” and it was in the yellow alert section the whole time and would drop a bit when the fan kicked on then go back to where it was while off never leaving the yellow section.

Suggestions of where to start, what this could be. If the fan running intermittently like that is normal or not etc. this is my GF’s car so I’m not sure what the normal action of the fan is (on my car if it isn’t moving and the ac is on the fans are 100% on probably on a low speed not on off)

Thanks for the help


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## snowwy66 (Nov 5, 2017)

Normal low pressure should be 30 -35. Normal high pressure should be 225 - 250.

With radiator fan running.

Most of you if not any of you have a full gauge set. You can buy an obd2 bluetooth dongle that connects your car to the phone. Use the torque pro app. It has a high side gauge. You can use that in place of a actual gauge set. 

Engine needs to be running at 2000. 

A static pressure without ac running would be around 100 - 110 on both high and low. When it's fully charged.

That'll give you an idea of pressures to look at and determine if the radiator fan isn't kicking on. 

The newer cars no longer run the fan off the compressor power. They now run off high pressure switch. So our fan don't run unless at idle and pressure gets up. On the freeway, there's no fan operation. 

I did a complete drain, vacuum, and refill from scratch. On my gen2. A full charge clocked 250 on the high. 28 on the low.

The car initially came with 180.


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## Pezgoon (Mar 7, 2018)

snowwy66 said:


> Normal low pressure should be 30 -35. Normal high pressure should be 225 - 250.
> 
> With radiator fan running.
> 
> ...


Don’t own an android


Okay so regardless of pressures, let’s focus on fans (because I can obviously observe that)

Say high temps or even right now, car running sittting at idle, does the fan only turn on and off or does it have a low/high setting.


Right now it seems to turn on when the pressure reaches a certain amount, when the pressure drops a bit it turns off cycle repeats.


On my car, if my car is idling and ac is on, the fan is on 100% of the time till I start moving. Are these supposed to do the same thing?

I’m trying to see if the fan relay/resistors are bad before diagnosing the AC system.


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## snowwy66 (Nov 5, 2017)

Torque isn't available for apple?

I can't hear my fan running so it must be low speed.

Only way i know my fan is running is the torque gauge dropping. Either high pressure or coolant temp gauge. 

Or. Be standing in front of the car.


If yours is coming on and off repeat cycle. I'd says your fan is working. With the ac.

However, your low pressure is too high. In order to do an accurate diagnosis. Need to know what the high pressure is doing.

I have a chart on computer at home. But I'm at work for a couple more hours. I'll post what it says when i get home but if i remember right. It's weak compressor.

Stay tuned.

And everyone else on here with a gen1 should have better answers on the fan.


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## snowwy66 (Nov 5, 2017)

You Need to know what the high pressure is for sure but the 2 choices are weak compressor or overcharged.


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## jblackburn (Apr 14, 2012)

The fan should have 3 speeds. Low, medium (rarely used), and high sounds like a jet about to take off. 

If it's going high-off-high, the fan resistors go out often on these cars. 

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk


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## Pezgoon (Mar 7, 2018)

snowwy66 said:


> Torque isn't available for apple?
> 
> I can't hear my fan running so it must be low speed.
> 
> ...


Sadly it is not, I’m hoping it’s not a weak compressor as it’s slready been replaced not too long ago and it was working fine a week ago until it got super hot recently and now doesn’t work, I believe the fans used to run all the time when the ac is on which it isn’t doing now so I’m thinking the fan resistors died.




snowwy66 said:


> You Need to know what the high pressure is for sure but the 2 choices are weak compressor or overcharged.


Shouldn’t be overcharged as it showed no signs of it before and the dealership replaced the compressor under warranty and it has worked fine for 40k until now, hoping it isn’t a weak compressor and I don’t think it is I’m leaning more towards fan issue.




jblackburn said:


> The fan should have 3 speeds. Low, medium (rarely used), and high sounds like a jet about to take off.
> 
> If it's going high-off-high, the fan resistors go out often on these cars.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk


Yep that’s all it’s doing, just on and off on high speed, loud as f*ck. I’m thinking that is what it is considering it worked fine up until a week ago and when the compressor died last time it took time and you could hear it during. It didn’t do any of that this time. Will look into fan resistors, any help on what I am to be looking for?


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## Pezgoon (Mar 7, 2018)

Is the resistor for it available separately or does the whole fan assembly have to be replaced to fix it?

I’m also gonna double check the relays as well

When I’m trying to find it to see if it’s availabke separately I’m only finding things that look like this http://r.ebay.com/pFYZt4 

Thoughts suggestions direction?? Thanks

Edit: looking at the proper fan assembly I see that it cannot be sold separately from what it looks like. I’m guessing there’s no other option besides replacing the whole thing https://www.rockauto.com/en/catalog...770,cooling+system,radiator+fan+assembly,2181

I’m gonna check the connector as I read elsewhere if there’s an issue two of the lines won’t have any resistance (will be open)


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## snowwy66 (Nov 5, 2017)

@jblackburn

What year did gm switch the fan over from always on to pressure on? Like how it works on our gen2's. 

Do you know?


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## jblackburn (Apr 14, 2012)

Yes, the whole stupid assembly has to be replaced. GM thinks it saves money making the whole parts assemblies as one part code/assembly...until the customer has to replace them.

It was controlled by pressures even on my 2012. High speed kicks in when the high-side pressure skyrockets (either as a result of a bad TXV, low speeds NOT working (common), or an improperly charged system).


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## Pezgoon (Mar 7, 2018)

jblackburn said:


> Yes, the whole stupid assembly has to be replaced. GM thinks it saves money making the whole parts assemblies as one part code/assembly...until the customer has to replace them.
> 
> It was controlled by pressures even on my 2012. High speed kicks in when the high-side pressure skyrockets (either as a result of a bad TXV, low speeds NOT working (common), or an improperly charged system).


Txv?

Which is what I’m seeing now, system should be properly charged and there was no low speed at all, just constant on/off which I’m assuming when AC is on it should be on low speed unless more is needed.

Now the high speed just bounces on and off because the pressure is hitting the upper limit. I’m gonna check the fan terminal tonight but I’ve got a strong feeling it’s bad.

It’s funny, ACDelco sells the fan and resistor on their own as one piece, too bad they didn’t make it separate or atleast an aftermarket company sell one that can be spliced in like advance auto has for the cadillacs


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## jblackburn (Apr 14, 2012)

> TXV


Expansion valve



> Now the high speed just bounces on and off because the pressure is hitting the upper limit. I’m gonna check the fan terminal tonight but I’ve got a strong feeling it’s bad.


Yeah; my suspicion is that you'll see nothing being output until the high speed kicks on.


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## Pezgoon (Mar 7, 2018)

jblackburn said:


> > TXV
> 
> 
> Expansion valve
> ...


Ah okay I figured it was the expansion valve but had a different name on this car.

Well it is just testing the fan side connector, apparently it has a fuse in the assembly and the fuse will blow causing the fan to only have high speed, so by testing the resistor if you don’t see resistance on all the wires then the fuse failed (or the resistor failed) open.

I could probably test the other way to check if the relays are good or not too (looking for voltage) will do some testing and will report back


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## snowwy66 (Nov 5, 2017)

There needs to be a rule where people post an actual number instead of saying YELLOW, Red, or Green or UPPER LIMIT. 

Upper limit of what???? Color????

JS


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## Pezgoon (Mar 7, 2018)

snowwy66 said:


> You Need to know what the high pressure is for sure but the 2 choices are weak compressor or overcharged.





jblackburn said:


> The fan should have 3 speeds. Low, medium (rarely used), and high sounds like a jet about to take off.
> 
> If it's going high-off-high, the fan resistors go out often on these cars.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk


If either of you could verify this or anyone on the forums can it would be amazing

Trying to get it unplugged sucked, the ground wire to the right holds tension on the plug and I could pull the thing out of the shroud but was able to work the plug out of it but anyways.

This is the connector, the other side is male spades so it’s tough to test with a multimeter but can be done, I circled what the spots are in relation to what the male spades actually are. If anyone could double check there’s and see if they get the same result (as long as theirs works as it should) that would be amazing because I didn’t get what I was expecting!

Black is the ground, I believe blue is the high speed (since it’s the biggest and had lowest resistance) red I think is medium and green was open (0) 

If someone could double check and verify if green is supposed to be open or not would be amazing but I suspect that could be my issue, it may be running on medium on and off and not high but again I had nothing on green and I’m almost positive I should see something from what I read

Any help/info would be amazing!

Ps! Just to reiterate, you have to test the SHROUD SIDE plug (which is upside down) NOT the purple plug! Thanks

Edit: blue I had 0.4 ohms and red I had 0.8 ohms again 0 on green (I just double checked) I know that doesn’t give scale but it works haha


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## Pezgoon (Mar 7, 2018)

snowwy66 said:


> There needs to be a rule where people post an actual number instead of saying YELLOW, Red, or Green or UPPER LIMIT.
> 
> Upper limit of what???? Color????
> 
> JS


What are you referring to?


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## snowwy66 (Nov 5, 2017)

Pezgoon said:


> What are you referring to?


This isn't meant to be rude so don't take it as such. 

Your gauge has numbers. But none of you post numbers. You all post colors or whatever that mean absolutely nothing. Because those colors are in a wide range and can be anything. 
In your first post you posted Yellow Alert. What does Yellow Alert mean?????? In your most recent post. You post Upper Limit. Again. What does Upper Limit mean?????

There are 2 ports on a ac system. Hi pressure and Low pressure. Which side are you checking???? That gives you yellow alert and upper limit????? And what's the range of that YELLOW ALERT OR UPPER LIMIT. 

There are numbers on the gauges. And there are 2 gauges. That SHOULD be getting used. 

I was at autozone today and took pics. I can honestly say that i wouldn't be using the colors for diagnosing. If the problem is minor. 

You all will look at the green and say. OK. Ac looks good. So why isn't it working. Green has a range of 25 - 50. And people will argue with people trying to help. 

25 - 30 isn't enough pressure to keep the compressor running. Although by today's standard. It probably will keep running. 38 - 50 is too much pressure. ON THE LOW SIDE. But hey. It's in the green. WELL, green goes way above and beyond the sweet spot for pressure. 

Those of us that do ac on a routine basis. Don't use the cheap gauge and a can. We use professional gauges. And they don't come with colors. As noticed in the link. 

https://www.harborfreight.com/ac-r134a-manifold-gauge-set-62707.html

Basically, what I"m saying. Is your gauge comes with numbers. Numbers go a lot further in people trying to help you then saying YELLOW ALERT AND UPPER LIMIT. Numbers mean something. Colors and limits don't. 

And for those of you needing the cheapest way to buy some gauges. You have the cheapo low side gauge. An obd2 bluetooth connector with torque app will give you the high side gauge. 

As for your resistance question. Might start a new thread asking for resistance specs. Or look down the threads. The question has been asked and answered a few times for the gen1. 
I don't have that answer for you as I'm new to the cruze world and my car is new so I can't help you. @*jblackburn* . Do you know the resistance spec?


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## Pezgoon (Mar 7, 2018)

snowwy66 said:


> Pezgoon said:
> 
> 
> > What are you referring to?
> ...



Sorry haha the gauge I was using didn’t have numbers on it, second one I used did.

I actually ended up fixing it somehow?? I messed with all the relays by just pushing on them all and unplugging and replugging in the ones hat related to the cooling fan speeds. Not sure what did it but it works as it should now, pressure sits around 28 psi (green range was to 35 psi btw) so alittle on the low side I might throw some more in it.

I don’t deal with ac’s so I have no use for a better gauge than that, that is all low side stuff btw.

I do not know the resistance spec but will try and find it and will start a new thread if I can’t!


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## snowwy66 (Nov 5, 2017)

I wouldn't use the low pressure as a gauge for determining charge. The high side is what you need to determine charge. 

Reality is. You all are playing with fire without knowing what the high side reads. $10 for a obd2 connector and $5 for torque app is well worth the price of having to pay for repairs. And let's be realistic. This won't be the only time you play with your ac. There will be future cars. 

Glad you got it working. :goodjob:


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## jblackburn (Apr 14, 2012)

> I wouldn't use the low pressure as a gauge for determining charge. The high side is what you need to determine charge.


I second this - don't fill by low pressure side on one of these cars. You may inadvertently overfill.


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