AC problem
 

Anyone here have any AC problems with car. I had the AC replaced at 31000 miles and under warranty, now at 59000 the thing has went out again. Of course the the replacement warranty just expired, go figure. Looks like the clutch is burnt out for the 2nd time. Just asking since we all live here in Texas and maybe the problem is more occurring in warmer climate areas. Talked to Texas Motor Ford and they said they would see what they could do about helping me out since they replaced the last one. Not really expecting much but maybe they will surprise me. Either way it has to get fixed, too freaking hot these last couple of days. lol

I hear yuh. I believe the cause is heat from the exhaust manifold. I made a heat shield for mine out of tin and reflective tape. No problem so far.

you could be right, that side of the car had a lot of heat coming from it. Figures it would go out and my temp was showing 107, damn that was a long drive home.

That's only my theory it has no basis but I do know heat destroys shit and that compressor sits right by a hot ass manifold with no insulation or protection. Dumb design.

Damn I didn't know this. Got me a little nervous now :(

If you look at where the compressor is it sits below the Exhaust manifold. Tucked in beside the block. The only thought I have is that ford engineers thought the heat would simply rise above it? The only air flow that reaches the compressor is that of the rad fan with hot air from the radiator. So the compressor literally bakes. I have already insulated my lines above the passnger manifold with high temp DEI wrap to make it a little easier on the compressor. Im working on a new setup for the Compressor right now with a little more shielding.

My other Theory is that poeple race with the Ac running. Thats a double whammy for it. The heat and the shock of all that hitting the clutch.

I can agree totally that the heat is the problem. I used to have similar problems with starter motors going out on an old car i had in high school. It too sat directly under the exhaust manifold. I would have to replace those damn things almost yearly. I am now very interested in doing some heat wrap myself. Any particular brand you'd recommend / where to get it?

I will post up some pics of mine when I finish. I used what I had left of the regulare Dei 1'' wrap tape. Silver in color. Now for the heatshield Im going to use DEI gold wrap. I have a 24'' by 24'' sheet with some leftover from building a heatshield for my dsm's alternator. IT was $70!! The best by far though. Its hard to reach the compressor and even harder to mount. I went to Lowes and bought some foil a long time ago it worked great for the alternator shield.

Honestly this would be a great product to market. I see tons of "AC out" threads all over google and it is scary.

Ya I really want to do this now. I just went out and looked at the compressor and exhaust manifold. It is dumb how close together they are. Ford even insulated the A/C lines that exit the compressor up to a certain point but not well enough I think. I think it would be best to wrap the manifold while I am at it too.

Now that is a toucgh call. Wrapping tends to lead to rust on a manifold in short order. I wrapped my rubber line above the manifold all the way up with 1'' dei wrap tape. I will probally end up doing the hard lines as well where there is a closeness to the manifold. I think IMO that a heat shield would be sufficent. The tape Reflects the heat away which is really the problem I believe. With out the heat directly on it, the problem shouldnt be that large. When I did my alternator it actually picked up 1 volt from just making the shield. It was close to my downpipe and was cooking. A nice heat shield with about 1'' of free space between it and the compressor would be great.

:word::word:

Can you post some pics of what you did for the alternator and the A/C lines so far?

Def. I get off at 4pm today. I wil take some. The alternator was for the DSM. If I can figure out a way to make them mount securely i will make some extras and sell them.

Nice ya I am very interested in doing this. I am actually about to go out and just get some wrap to do the A/C lines for now and a temperature gun to start taking baselines from.

Maybe we can wwork together on this. You can find the tape at Oreillys. $20 I believe. Start where the factory tape stops and wrap the rubber. 1 layer is plenty dont double wrap. Since the tape is reflective it really doesnt matter.