Huge Puddles Lost Air Conditioning
 

I had to travel in the remnants of the hurricane. I drove through some huge puddles and then all of a sudden my windows fogged completely and I could not get any cold air or any amount of dehumidification. I checked the fuses and everything looks OK. Did something get wet and will it just fix itself? I am surprised, considering that I have that plastic cover under the motor. My engine compartment doesn’t even look wet. Please help me. What happened? I drive a 1995 E320.

Either the A/C compressor clutch slipped or the polyvbelt slipped causing the protective circuitry to disengage the compressor. Basically, if the logic circuit (which compares compressor speed with engine speed and was installled in various iterations including a Klima control relay, MAS control relay and others) determines slippage it will disengage the compressor for approx. 2 minutes. It will then engage the compressor again and if slippage is detected again it will lock out the compressor until the ignition key is cycled off. This is MB's way of protecting the polyvbelt from destruction should the compressor lock but it results in lots of instances where the compressor will not operate. There are other posts on this site about this. Mark

Thank you mark
 

Thank you for the information. I think I understand and it sounds like it will be OK as soon as it dries. It might even work fine if I just restart the car and it doesn’t slip. I just love my car and was hoping it was just something that would kind of repair itself. It sounds like Lady Luck is with me this time. Thanks again for your quick reply.

Ken

No Worries
 

Just to finish this thread, I want to say that my car was fine when I restarted my car the next day. The problem never reoccurred, so I guess it just got too wt for a brief period of time. The good news is that my car ran fine and I didn't get stranded. I just lost my AC for a brief period of time.

Happy to hear it worked without further problems. With 230K miles on my 91 300TE I am sure compressor replacement won't be too far in the future. Mark