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C5 HVAC Problem. YIKES its hot out (and in)

phil59

Member
Joined
Jul 13, 2019
Messages
6
Location
Huntington Beach, California
Corvette
2000 Pewter FRC
I've just inherited a near perfect 2000 FRC. Two problems. The air conditioning doesn't work. No doubt its new compressor time but Ill deal with that down the road. What I want more than that is fresh air. All the vents blow nothing but warm air at all fan speeds. No fresh air comes thru at all. This is what I want to fix first but I have no idea where to start. Is there a common culprit?
Any help/advise to get me started?
Thanks
Phil
 
I've just inherited a near perfect 2000 FRC. Two problems. The air conditioning doesn't work. No doubt its new compressor time but Ill deal with that down the road. What I want more than that is fresh air. All the vents blow nothing but warm air at all fan speeds. No fresh air comes thru at all. This is what I want to fix first but I have no idea where to start. Is there a common culprit?
Any help/advise to get me started?
Thanks
Phil



If the ambient air is hot or warm, you will get that temp or hotter from the HVAC without the a/c working. Fresh air does not mean cool air, it only means that it is coming from outside the vehicle by the cowl which can be hot air depending on engine temps and ambient temp. Do all your modes work correctly? Does the temperature change from warm to hotter when you dial the temp from cold to hot?

Have your a/c diagnosed properly, unless your compressor already has been diagnosed to be bad professionally, it could still be good.
 
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The first thing to check is if the fuse or relay is blown. Anyone can check is to see if the AC fuse or relay is bad. It is what you should do first before paying a dealer or a shop labor for a diagnosis. Your owners manual will tell you where they are located. Some vehicles will have a fuse and a relay. The relay being there to protect the electrical system when the clutch engages, which causes quite a draw of amps.

AC compressors since the mid '80's are designed not to engage the clutch if it is low on freon. They will cycle on and off if they are pretty low, say with about 1-2 lbs of freon. This is so the compressor will not overheat and get damaged. Unless you know how to work on the AC system, I would have pro's diagnose what is wrong. If the system is just very low on freon, you would want to find out why. So, if it is just a leak somewhere, you would want to get that solved before refilling it with freon. A can of freon dye and a UV light will show exactly where it is leaking. If the clutch on the compressor is engaging and running, then you may have an HVAC door operation problem in the AC box. It could be stuck in the heater mode. This could be caused by a bad servo in the AC box, or the AC controller in the dash not functioning correctly.

As others have said, putting the HVAC system on vent doesn't mean you would get ambient air temps through the vents. The air could be quite a bit hotter has the air is drawn in at the base of the windshield, right behind a hot engine. Hot under hood air temps could be going right into the cowl vents.
 

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