Weird C280 A/C Problem - Long Read

[billabong132]

OK - Here's the background:

• 1996 C280 Sport was in a wreck - AC worked fine before
• Cluster had been replaced before wreck - old cluster had died
• wreck broke the condensor

Here's what was done for the repair:

• New Condensor
• New Drier
• New O-rings on all the lines

The Problem: The AC Now works randomly. When it does work it cools FREEKING COLD - so it's working normally, pressures look good on the gauges etc.

When it decides not to come on the climate control unit shows that it has 0 bars of pressure. But the gauges show otherwise. You can tell it's a false reasing because it will flicker between having pressure and not having pressure.

When it decides to run the condensor fans also operate normally. (Has a new condensor fan also).

It also gives a code about the cluster.

What we've tried:

• Evacuating and recharging by weight several times
• another drier
• swapping the pressure sensor
• swapping the temp sensor
• swapping the climate control unit
• swapping all the relays
• running new wire from the sensor to the climate control unit

Still doing it - only thing we haven't tried is another cluster - but I'm at a loss about how the cluster could cause the problem - it works fine. And it wasn't causing any ac probs before the wreck.

We're stumped