Evora A/C not blowing cold

[hamza]

Hi,

I had the compressor replaced last year and after that the a/c was cold to the point that even during the heat wave i'd have to turn the temperature up after a while as the car would get too cold. Yesterday though, just driving home in much cooler weather than last year's heat wave and the a/c was barely managing to keep the cabin cool. I'm not sure if it was actually even cooling the air at all.

Any obvious checks before I give Silverstone a call and ask them to check?

[series_one]

That’s odd. Did you keep the a/c on since last year, and just adjusted the temp dial to manage? 
 

I always did as I understood that keeping it always on ensures its always lubricated. Not using the compressor for months on end while the car is used is not good. 
 

have you tried the “windows reset” method (on off ignition)? 
 

hopefully that or a fuse sorts it. 

[hamza]

Yep, always on. Never actually turn off the a/c button for exactly that reason.

What's the window reset method?

[TdM]

Probably just needs a re-gas. Is it blowing cool air it's just not *cold*?

Don't think there's much you can do other than visit your dealer TBH but if the pump is done recently(ish) most likely culprit is just you need some more gas, it happens to all cars...

[series_one]

I mean ignition off, wait 5 mins, restart

 

 

[EuropaSman]

@hamza do you know if the condenser has ever been replaced?

If it's not just low gas, then other than the compressor causing problems, another common failure point is the condenser. They've always been a bit of a weak point on the Evora as well as the Elise/Exige/Europa S.  My Europa S had a corroded condenser that leaked when I had it and my LE's condenser had a leak that was picked up by chance on an MOT. The dye could be seen leaking up one side. Fortuantely I managed to get it changed under warranty at the time. My Elise now has an aircon problem as well; again I suspect it's a corroded condenser and will be very suprised if it isn't when it gets replaced at the end of June.

Lotus Silverstone will probably do either a vacuum check or a nitrogen pressure check to find out if the system is leaking.

By the way, I know that the early Evoras tend to suffer from evaporator icing. It's down to poor palcement of the thermistor in the HVAC unit. My Evora's HVAC ices up on a regular basis in hot weather, but I manage it by a quick blast of full hot with aircon off. The good thing is that I know the aircon is definitely working if the car has a little wee wee underneath near the offside front wheel a few minutes after the engine is stopped.

 

[hamza]

18 hours ago, TdM said:

Probably just needs a re-gas. Is it blowing cool air it's just not *cold*?

Don't think there's much you can do other than visit your dealer TBH but if the pump is done recently(ish) most likely culprit is just you need some more gas, it happens to all cars...

It shouldn't really need gas unless there's a leak... and in which case the leak needs to be sorted first. The only exception to this that I'm aware of is if the system isn't used for long periods of time and the seals (particularly on the compressor) can then dry up and let the gas escape. If lucky just regassing and using the system can be enough to recover from this. I haven't ever turned off the a/c though and the car is used at worst every 2 weeks or so... so I'm guessing this probably isn't the case?

17 hours ago, series_one said:

I mean ignition off, wait 5 mins, restart

 

 

ah. yea done that! I've suspected this was that case for a few weeks now to be honest but with the cooler weather and me often using the car early/late in the day it was hard to be sure.

11 hours ago, EuropaSman said:

@hamza do you know if the condenser has ever been replaced?

If it's not just low gas, then other than the compressor causing problems, another common failure point is the condenser. They've always been a bit of a weak point on the Evora as well as the Elise/Exige/Europa S.  My Europa S had a corroded condenser that leaked when I had it and my LE's condenser had a leak that was picked up by chance on an MOT. The dye could be seen leaking up one side. Fortuantely I managed to get it changed under warranty at the time. My Elise now has an aircon problem as well; again I suspect it's a corroded condenser and will be very suprised if it isn't when it gets replaced at the end of June.

Lotus Silverstone will probably do either a vacuum check or a nitrogen pressure check to find out if the system is leaking.

By the way, I know that the early Evoras tend to suffer from evaporator icing. It's down to poor palcement of the thermistor in the HVAC unit. My Evora's HVAC ices up on a regular basis in hot weather, but I manage it by a quick blast of full hot with aircon off. The good thing is that I know the aircon is definitely working if the car has a little wee wee underneath near the offside front wheel a few minutes after the engine is stopped.

 

Thanks for that.

Yes I think Pierre already replaced the condenser prior to my buying the car from him.

Silverstone is a bit of a trek for me so maybe i'll find someone locally to vacuum test/ regas. The main reason for going back to Silverstone would be if it turns out to be a compressor related problem again as it should still be under warranty.

[LotusLeftLotusRight]

Yeah, I don’t buy the idea that a simple re-gas will solve it. You might be lucky and get a summer’s worth of cool air from it by doing that, but you’ll be back to square one again next spring.

[EuropaSman]

@hamza is Bell & Colvill closer to you? My Evora was serviced with them in its early life as they were the dealership that originally sold the car.  I used them a couple of times before getting it serviced closer to home here in the East Midlands. They were the ones who replaced the condenser in 2014 and the aircon is still going strong. If they find an issue with the compressor I'm sure they'd come to an arrangement with Lotus Silverstone, as they are both approved service centres.

[hamza]

They're closer but it takes just more or less the same amount of time to get to them. They do all the servicing on my Exige so I know them well and I bought my 410 from them also.

I was more thinking of just using a local garage, not even a Lotus specialist to check if there's a leak... nothing too lotus specific about that so long as they can find the points to connect to.