I've been having some problems with my A/C functioning on my 1983 Mercedes 240D, with manual climate control. (So it's not a circuit board or something like that.)

The A/C compressor is, as far as I'm aware, new-ish; one of the big features when I purchased this car from a classic car dealer was that it had recently had almost $2k of A/C work done.

The trouble is: the compressor doesn't reliably engage. I have to wiggle the switches, turn the 0-MAX knob a few times, turn it up to 3 and back down to 1 or 2, a lot. I can feel and watch the oil pressure gauge for when its going on, and it takes a lot.

Once it gets going -- it's perfect, nearly freezes me out of the car in most cases (even on R-134a) but getting it to click on is a pain.

I'm open to suggestions as to how to fix. I assume that the controls on the face of the CCU drive a relay somewhere, which in turn drives the A/C compressor. I'd optimally like to just override the "compressor on" signal and have it be a switch somewhere, so I set the blower speed like always, and press an on/off button for the A/C compressor activation. Would that work?

I'd like to have it done pretty quickly as it's downright dangerous for me to drive at night -- without the compressor on, outside humid air gets in and fogs my windshield up so badly from the inside that I have to wipe it about once every 2 minutes just to see out.

Cheers.

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1983 Mercedes-Benz 240D
Automatic, A/C, Power Sunroof, Power Right Side Mirror
231K Miles FOR SALE MAKE OFFER

check the plug to the compresser is clean and snug.