Hello all,
The air conditioner in my 2003 Lancer ES hisses when turned on and blows hot. I had this looked at a couple of years ago, and the shop told me that the valve (I can't recall whether high pressure or low pressure side) had gone bad. I paid something like forty bucks for the valve + some more for the labor and recharge. Now, it's doing it again, and I can't imagine a valve going bad that often. I worked at this shop for years, and never heard of an AC valve going bad, not to mention going bad twice. What could this be? I've already changed the compressor about four years ago, for a remanufactured one. Could this be the compressor again?

 

bump

 

Mine was doing this and i found out i had a leak. Are you noticing a drop in pressure after a few days?

 

Honestly, I haven't checked yet. But the last time it did this, I had been running the blower fan only for a couple of months without the AC on, since it was winter. I don't know if that has anything to do with it, but this time it appeared under the same circumstances, and last time, it did have proper pressure.

 

Check the fan controller box this is what mine did right before it popped my radiator. Does your water temp go up as well? My box went bad and many others have had this problem.

 

No, water temp is fine. No unusual or sporadic radiator fan noises. The coolant was changed biannually and the thermostat may have been changed (can't recall). It only hisses when the A/C is turned on. It's been well maintained, but the one thing I cheaped out on was a remanufactured compressor when that went a few years back. I have a bad feeling I may have to change that and the drier again. If only they sold A/C clutches for this car, I would probably be fine. That was the only thing really wrong with the previous compressor. A $5-$10 part goes bad and you have to spend $150-$350 to get a new one, as a consequence of it only being sold with the compressor.

 

I got it figured out yesterday. Jehuty was right. Apparently, the front of the compressor has a slow leak that's not really bad enough to condemn it. Had it evac'd and recharged, and now she's blowing cold again. I think it wasn't a problem in the past, because I used the AC all the time (as you do in Florida) but the last couple of winters have been especially cold, so I tried to save gas by not running the AC. I guess the drop in pressure allowed the leak to open up more than when I ran it regularly.