wimpy air conditioner

2000 XJ w/4.0. Is it me or does the air conditioning system suck? I have driven tons of other cars and the AC comes out much colder. I know that the new enviro friendly gas does not transfer heat as well, but was wondering if anyone out there has a upgrade solution. I live in the desert and would like to chill my beer if I want too. And yes, i have had the AC serviced but dealer, they say, "thats just the way it is, we have lots of complaints."

I've never been satisfied with the A/C in mine. I had a new 93 and went to FL on vacation and thought it was broken because it couldn't keep up. They checked and it was in spec. I got the windows tinted and that helped quite a bit. I bought a new Toyota Sienna last year and the A/C in that sucker will blow your wig off and then freeze you to death. It sets the new standard for auto A/C for me.

Well, I live in Phoenix, and so my AC gets used a LOT. (I have had to run it the past couple of days already!) Compared to my 1992, my current 2000 model is "slightly" less efficient, but I cannot complain. Even in the middle of summer here (110+), it still does OK.

If you feel that it's not doing the job, it's probably becuase it needs some service attention.

I have a 97 and it seems to work just fine. It should have the same system as your 2000. We get up to 110 degrees here. You might need an AC service.

Poor guy - shoveling snow here. Will not need AC for another 2 months.

With most of my vehicles, even having lived in hot climates, I've found the best AC setting is "4-75". Four windows down. 75 MPH.

Sorry, just took the time to tell a bad joke.

modern cars do seem to depend on the "recirculate" setting to get really cold.

wescam said:

With most of my vehicles, even having lived in hot climates, I've found the best AC setting is "4-75". Four windows down. 75 MPH.

Sorry, just took the time to tell a bad joke.

modern cars do seem to depend on the "recirculate" setting to get really cold.

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That setting works best for me too...lol. Also if you have a vehicle that you can open just the rear glass (doesn't apply to XJ's), and roll all 4 windows down, you can get a hell of a breeze going through.

I backed my last XJ into a tree, which, quite conveniently, popped the rear windsheild right out. 'Course I had all 4 doors off of that one, so you can imagine what 75 was like in that sucker! :exclamati

My 93 Sport's A/C is freezing cold - I live down here in S.E Florida, and even in the middle of summer it's cold enough to put frost on the inside of my front quarter-windows. I think it still has the old gas in it, but I always keep it on the "MAX" setting on the HVAC, with the thermostat slider all the way to the left. Plus, it's pretty much always running whenever I'm in the car.

I've been told by a few A/C guys that the more you use an A/C system, the colder it will get as the system ages (unless something breaks of course), so it might be an idea to take it to an A/C specialist (not a dealer) in your area and have them check it all out. There's a guy that I used to go to in my hometown of Sydney, Australia that used to guarantee that he could get 32 deg F from the vent of any A/C system, or your money back, and he had very few complaints from his customers, so I'm SURE that there's hundreds of A/C guys here in the states that could offer the same deal.

Best of luck in getting it fixed.

Quarterwave

wescam said:

With most of my vehicles, even having lived in hot climates, I've found the best AC setting is "4-75". Four windows down. 75 MPH.

Sorry, just took the time to tell a bad joke.

modern cars do seem to depend on the "recirculate" setting to get really cold.

Click to expand...

My 2.8 needs MAX AC to even bring it WARM....With no AC left, it does a good job of warming the cab up quick.

99XJSPORT06 said:

That setting works best for me too...lol. Also if you have a vehicle that you can open just the rear glass (doesn't apply to XJ's), and roll all 4 windows down, you can get a hell of a breeze going through.

Click to expand...

works even better with the sunroof open too......

wolfepack215 said:

works even better with the sunroof open too......

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And better yet when you chop the top.

94XJ4x4 said:

And better yet when you chop the top.

Click to expand...

And you still end up:

wind-blown
sweaty
dirty, and
hot.

But, at least you didn't use the d***ed ac.

Many of the "converted" air conditioners will not do well in traffic no matter what you do because the condensor is too small for the refrigerant.


If you do convert a system to 134 then I would recommend changing the orafice and the drier, removing as much of the oil in the compressor as possible and putting in the correct oil for the refrigerant and charging the system SLOWLY!

If you put a digital thermometer into the vent and turn it on high and charge the system slowly while watching the thermostat you will get to a point at about 40 degrees where your system wont get any colder sitting still.

At this point take it out and drive it and I bet you get frost from the vent at road speed!

The one major thing that will help any 134 system in traffic is an electric fan, it simply pulls air with the AUX fan at a uniform flow through the condensor thus keeping it cooler. You still won't get 32 degrees from the vent in traffic but around 40 on max cool is average and liveable.

As a side note, take your car to the car wash and power wash the condensor and radiator every spring to get any dirt and bugs out of it; this will also help in cooling everything.

JC95

Just be sure that you have full charge on your system and that your condenser (radiator-lookin thing in front of the real radiator) is clean and free of crap and other restrictions. That's about the best you can do easily to ensure efficiency, short of tearing the dash apart. The fact that it is a R-134a system shouldnt make a difference, mine is R-134a and we measured it blowing at 29 degrees on a 65 degree day... Next time you have the system serviced, be sure that they replace the accumulator and the orifice tube if they can get it. Accumulators aren't too expensive, same thing with the orifice tube.

I charge my own, and even when converting an R-12 system over to R-134a, I usually get them down to about 30 degrees. Even on the XJ's. I've had alot of LUCK with not having to change much on all of them that I've charged and they're all still going strong after a number of years on cars/trucks that I've done and sold locally. I've only had to change a couple of O-rings from failure...the others have held-up just fine.
Aron

Just last night I finally decided to try something to fix the issue I was having where my '97 A/C would never come out fully cold. I was always curious because the temperature knob never seemed to go all the way to the cold side, it felt like it was hitting something prematurely and not going all the way over like it did on the hot side...

I was pulling the radio to remove my CD changer cord and while I was in there I took off the A/C control panel to look behind it just to see if something was hanging up. What I found is that the knob is mounted to a shaft that turns a small pinion and the pinion sits inside a partial sun gear (a gear with the teeth on the inside of the outer edge) and that gear pushed/pulled a cable that (I assume) moves a damper for hot/cold air.

Sure enough, when going to hot, the gears "bottomed out" and when going to cold, there was still a few teeth left on the sun gear that it couldn't use because it hit an internal stop in the knob.

The sun gear is held on a shaft with a simple little spring-loaded latch that I used my key to release, I popped off the sun gear and rotated it around a few teeth and put it back on.

VOILA! REAL A/C!

I'd suggest anyone with the "not real cold" A/C problem take a look at this first. It takes all of 10 minutes (remove the switch panel below the A/C controls to look at the back side of the switch, gives you more room to work because of the cable attached to the temp knob.) and only involves pulling off the trim around the radio/A/C and 7 screws.