a/c issue
 

the A/C on the passenger side is blowing ice cold where as the driver's side is giving out warm air. I tried the LO setting as well as keeping them around 57 on both sides with auto settings etc yet no change.
If the refrigirant was low wouldnt both sides giving out warm air ?
it's on the 00 E430
thnx.

On the W210 chassis due to evaporator design....when the system is low on refrigerant the drivers side will be warmer..have some refrig added OE even better have the refrig recovered & weighed to see how low it was & then recharge & leak test.

I have exactly what MBDoc described -- warmer on the driver side, but not quite hot. Cold on the passenger side. Maybe I'll try adding a little of my own refrigerant, and then I'll just go in and suck up the cash for an evac and recharge if that doesn't help at all. I already took the duovalve all apart (thanks for that, ParrotofDoom), and found no obvious problems there.

It's definitely that time of year down here - plenty of A/C complaints will be posted the next few months! 92 degrees here this afternoon...not too hot yet.

Cheers, John

Still amazes me that those 210s do that.

Evidently if the refrigerant is low, the cooling in the evap gets "all used up" before it gets all the way across.

Consider it an early warning sign.

You know, it's really amazing what about 4-5 oz of DIY refrigerant will do for your A/C system. :) I got bored this afternoon and decided that was a good quick project, and boy is the air blowing a lot cooler in my car. Temp seems to be equalized between driver and passenger side now, too.

I can't explain why my car was low on freon -- I'll just blame the prior owner. I know it can't go somewhere without a leak -- as Matt L says, something greater is probably wrong. But for now, and for $5, I'm a fairly happy camper. I'll watch and see if/when the performance degradation comes, then have a leak check done or something.

Cheers, John

I went to the mech to have the charge checked. Could only find one port for the a/c freon to be checked under the hood which is close to the brake booster.
looked all over and the mech couldnt locate the other port for the pressure checking. any ideas where that would be on the E430 ? thnx.

I'm not sure that yours is the same, but my '96 has it attached to one of the condenser pipes. There's a small panel that comes off the auxiliary fan shroud, at the upper left (driver's side for us US people) corner of the radiator. Under it is the high-side connector.