1997 C230 Ac

[georgeb]

First i'd like to say hello to everyone, this is a fantastic resource and the contributions by some of you are extremely insightful. Ive done an enormous amount of reading about my current ac problem and i think i've narrowed down the possibilities.

I have a 1997 C230 with 129,000 on the clock. I purchased this car 4 years ago and its been an amazing vehicle. My wife drives the car and last July the air stopped working. I was in the middle of building a house and until now its not been a high priority to get it working again but now with summer around the corner we need to get this resolved.

I can say that for a year or so when we ran the air the car would make a rattling sound which I thought was the tensioner often mentioned in posts on this board. When the air was shut off the sound dissapated. In retrospect it may have been the compressor going south.

I pulled the dtc's and get 419 and 421. The prior relates to the clutch the latter to the pulse control module. I tried resetting the dtc's and the same come back immediately. The pressure was low so i added a can of refrigerant. The compressor does not seem to turn or engage at all. I've tried disconnecting the ect sensor, jumping the pressure switch and yelling at it to no avail.

The actual values are as follows:
1)105F 2)60F 3)82F 5)82F 6)134 7)Lo 8)77F 9)50F 10)50.5 21)80

After i put the can of 134a in yesterday the pressure at 7 read 3.7 bars so obviously it leaked out somewhere.

Any ideas anyone.

Best Regards
George

[georgeb]

OK the more I read the more i'm certain that the compressor is shot. Is this one of the black death candidates. Thanks for your help.

George

[Michael K]

You should get more information from posters here on Monday. I'm very curious to hear how it turns out for you. Can you test to see if the compressor is shot?

[georgeb]

I can't afford to take the car out of service at the moment so i'm trying my best to narrow down the problem as best I can. I talked to another forum member who had the same dtc's and it was in fact the compressor. I've also read where another member had the same rattling type noises happening prior to a compressor failure so i'm fairly certain thats it. I could probably do a continuity test to see if the fusible link is shot however looking at it, it seems kind of difficult to do without taking things apart. I'm just hoping if it is the compressor that it isn't the black death variety.

[Michael K]

I know what you mean about that "rattling noise." To me, it sounded more like a warble, though. Mine did it for about a year and a half before it croaked last Fall. Good luck with yours. Are you going to replace the compressor yourself?

[georgeb]

I guess you had a compressor failure also. What else did you have to get done to make it right. Yes I'm going to do the mechanical end myself.