91 240 sx se a/c problem

[FIA28950]

himy name is paul cass and i have a 91 sx/se. recently the air conditioning has been acting up. sometimes nome of the switches on the control panel work. then out of the clear blue they all work. currently the a/c will come on, but all of the air is blowing out from under the dash. no matter what button you push on the dash, the air only comes out on the floorboard. occasionally, the a/c switch will not turn on the compressor. i can hot wire the compressor to acitvate the system. i'm considering replacing the control panel. as it is quite pricey i would like to know if there could be something else going on. any help would be greatly appreciatedthanks,paul cass

[vancouverbc]

section HA in factory service manual covers diagnostics of a/c. link to manual in my signature.

[180fan]

find a used one from someone parting their car. from the sound of it, sounds like the cable that moves the plate around to different ducts is busted or the piece that hold the cable is busted. You'll have to investigate that one on your own.

The AC not working or coming on once in a while, sounds more like a loose plug somewhere than anything else.

[FIA28950]

thanks guysi tried to download the service manualm but no luck. today i will remove the control panel and see what i find, hopefully it will be something obvious. the only control panels i can find i have to buy. if nothing else shows up, i may have to buy a used one. i'll update on what i find.paul

[vancouverbc]

i think you need winrar to open it.

[FIA28950]

thanks van for the diagram. i'm on hold for the time being as i wait for a new compressor. it looks like from the diagram that either the switch panel works on it doesn't. i don't see any relays or other items that might affect the operation of the system. anyway i plan to replace the control panel. i'll update next week when i change out parts. thanks for all the help.paul

[vancouverbc]

your welcome. winrar is free, btw.

http://www.rarlab.com/download.htm

I assume you know refrigeration. The compressor usually goes because of contamination in system. In other words, a Bad compressor is usually a symptom of something else.

[FIA28950]

hey guysit's taken a while, but the ac is semi fiixed. the compressor had a broken valve-old age i guess, installed a new compressor and drier and the system works just fine. i tried using a used control panel but it turns out that the used one was broken. put the old one back in and things worked most of the time. every now and then the ac wouldn't come on. i'm sure its in the control panel. currently trying to find the best price on a new one. dealers seem to want around $300. along the way the auto transmission started to act up. would only run in two gears. starts in 2nd and shifts to 3rd. reverse works. manual shifting it does the same thing. turn the key off and try again and then the transmission works perfectly. shifts are hard and crisp. checked the fluid and it is clean but a clear yellow color. nissan dealer has serviced the transmission on a regular basis. from what i've been told it could be that the fluid is old and needs to be replaced and or one or more of the solonoids in the transmission are acting up. may explain why when the transmission doesn't shift you can turn off the key and when you turn it back on everything works. hmmmmmm. taking it back to the dealer tomorrow. any thoughts would be welcome. by the way, the car belongs to my daughter and she has no plans of selling it anytime soon.thanks,paul