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960 Air conditioner "Clicks" when starting

eradsilky

New member
Joined
Sep 2, 2007
Location
Hudson valley, ny
HELP! I checked out the air conditioning in my 1995 960 and I hear a click like its trying to start but then clicks again in 5-10 sec intervals with no cold air coming out the vents. Anyone know what this could be?
 
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geez, havent added more refrig since 06 maybe is that too long?

That's good - you likely don't have any leaks. If you have to add refrigerant more than once a year you should track down your leak, but if it holds a charge for years on end just add more refrigerant.

I've had great luck with "duracool" from autozone - has a polar bear on the front and makes your stuff run COLD.
 
thanks

I appreciate the info. adding refrigerant is easy enough to do or should I send it to a shop? That stuff can burn your skin right off I hear!!!
 
Easy as pie to do yourself - there's a reason it's right up front at autozone!

It's not particularly hazardous, the only way it could 'burn' you is if you somehow punctured the canister and it sprayed liquified freon directly on your skin, which would freeze it not burn it. Ordinary household compressed air dusters are much more dangerous as it is easier to spray liquid instead of gas.

There are instructions on the kit, but basically you connect the hose to the low pressure side, and crack open the bottle with the AC running and add refrigerant until you reach a specified pressure (varies by ambient temperature). Full set of instructions should be included with the kit.

Be sure to keep the hose/gauge too so next time you only need to buy the refrigerant not the whole kit.
 
It's a 960, the evaporator is leaking. 960 evaporators are GRAVY. They slide right out.

Replace it.

Then have a shop weigh out a correct charge. Charging with a gauge is shady and doesn't work.

That's why it's low, that's why the clutch cycles rapidly.
 
It's a 960, the evaporator is leaking. 960 evaporators are GRAVY. They slide right out.

Replace it.

Then have a shop weigh out a correct charge. Charging with a gauge is shady and doesn't work.

That's why it's low, that's why the clutch cycles rapidly.

While I agree that it would be ideal to find any leaks before adding more gas - I would actually recommend adding freon to it and driving it for a while to see how bad it the leak really is.

If the O.P. is an environmentally conscience individual - the best recommendation would be to add enough gas (+UV dye) to the system to enable leak detection (by a competent indy or dealer).

Then - pull down, repair, recharge.

Just because 960 evaporators have a tendency to need replacement (I'm not actually sure - we did way more 850 evaporators in my time as a mechanic) doesn't mean that this evaporator is bad by default. It could be as simple as a new o-ring job and then a good charge (for an "ideal" repair).

just my .02

---

BTW,

Charging with a gauge is shady and doesn't work.

Actually, I believe that the Volvo procedure would be to charge the system first (by weight) then verify correct high / low pressures (correcting charge as needed) - right? :-P
 
Well Thanks for all the advice, and I'm pondering a diy recharge to start with, but I'm not quite sure where I would tap into it I see a black cap on a yellow colored stem coming off a tall aluminum can=like structure and another w/out a cap down low near the center of the motor off of a line. That can is called condensor or evaporator? Where would I charge into?? Thanks again
 
The system has two different size lines, a small line and a large line. The small line is high pressure, the large line is low pressure. Always charge from the low pressure side, the high pressure side will cause the freon can to explode.
Find a fitting on the low pressure side, large line.
 
On a 960, the low pressure charge port should be on the dryer (the big can looking thing by the firewall).

People will argue about how best to service A/C until the cows come home.
I'd postulate a few obvious principles (OPs) that might make it easier to decide:
1. Your car isn't brand new, or even say 1-3 years old where it might just need a top-off...it is at least 12-18 years old being a 960. Service might be as straight forward as a 1-3 year old car, and that is great if it is, I'd be happy, but most likely it isn't.
2. Whoever worked on your car in the last 12+ years might have charged it with something different than OEM or sealed it or not differently than OEM.
3. There may have been periods of time in that last 12 years where contaminants or moisture made it into the system either from a part failure (compressor or some such) or from disuse (moisture is common)or a puncture/major leak.

I've seen some PAG oils chemically make a mess of A/C systems used in volvos, seen rusted up or chewed up compressors and seen the dryer have a bunch of oil sitting in it.

I would make sure everything seals well (new o-rings of a nice material go a long way, but are time consuming to install), check for any debris from the compressor, change the dryer (they are cheap and recommended) and vac it down, verify it holds vac and charge it up (you may have to jump the compressor low pressure switch to kick it on for a sec).

Lots of oil can wind up in the dryer. I charge by weight, but verify by the gauge too. There can still be a lot of oil in there even after a vacuum, particularly if the compressor or dryer aren't replaced which takes up volume and can lead to over-charging if one puts the proper weight in only. Of course, all this extra oil, though not real harmful, decreases the cooling (heat exchange really) ability of the system, so I check that both the weights, pressures and vent temps are close.

This may sound like a lot of work, especially if your compressor and drier are recently replaced or known to work. Simply a vac and charge or top off may be "good enough" to make it work and keep working as long as you keep the car. If it has some refrigerant and will cycle rapidly, I'd add a little dye and top it and forget it and sell the car in a while...its a 12+ year old crappy volvo lol.

I guess the final corollary OP is that if you want your 12+ year old A/C to work like brand new, you are going to have to spend some real time and be willing to change or significantly inspect all the parts (doing things like looking at each piece and verifying all oil is drained and everything is dried). Making it work OK when it sorta works already shouldn't be impossible though either.
 
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my 780 is doing the same thing, so i hooked it up to gages and checked the pressures and they were fine (150 on the hi, 20 on the low). So I jumped the connector at the low pressure switch (the one that is mounted on the receiver/dryer), and then the compressor clutch cycled as it should, and cold air was blowing constantly. i monitored the pressures for 15 or 20 minutes and they seemed fine. So when i get a chance ill evac and replace the sensor and recharge. Ill let you know if my diagnosis was correct.


So check your pressure switches as well, they are easy to test and cheap to replace.
 
my 780 is doing the same thing, so i hooked it up to gages and checked the pressures and they were fine (150 on the hi, 20 on the low). So I jumped the connector at the low pressure switch (the one that is mounted on the receiver/dryer), and then the compressor clutch cycled as it should, and cold air was blowing constantly. i monitored the pressures for 15 or 20 minutes and they seemed fine. So when i get a chance ill evac and replace the sensor and recharge. Ill let you know if my diagnosis was correct.


So check your pressure switches as well, they are easy to test and cheap to replace.

Your low pressure switch can be replaced without evacuating the system, as it has a schrader valve below it. Simply remove the old switch and install the new one.
 
Kinda related question: if I replace the condensor in my 91 740 with that of a newer 960, would it fit? And, would it be more efficient? Also, would such condensor work in a 86 760?
 
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