Long story short: what should I expect the temperature of the air coming out of my vents to be with A/C on with 85-90 degree outside temp?

My first post. I'm desperate. My mom bought a 2010 Rogue from a well known used car (non-Nissan) dealer in our area. A/C was not working originally, (blowing warm air) but they said they'd obviously fix it. When we picked up the car, the A/C was blowing cool air.

A week goes by and my mother is complaining that the A/C is not cold enough. I stick a temperature probe (we had some 90+ degree days), and after driving for 10-15 minutes the A/C is blowing 60-62 degrees.

We return to the dealer, who does a leak test and replaces the condenser and a couple o-rings, immediately after which the A/C is blowing even worse, 65-67 deg. The technician says they've already replaced the compressor (original problem) and the condenser now. He recommends we take it to a Nissan dealer.

The Nissan dealer now says they replaced an o-ring on a high pressure line, which was apparently "squished" when the other dealer installed the new compressor. They claimed they ran the A/C for 30 minutes and "everything checked out." Now my mother calls me and says the A/C is blowing at 60 degrees, and a few degrees cooler on Max A/C.

Is this normal? Is this what we should expect?

What do I do?

It's certainly not rocket science. Have them vacuum the system and pressurize. Hold to check for leaks. Doesn't sound like they are doing that. 60 degrees is way too high.

Yeah. It is certainly not. The first dealer are good guys, i almost feel sorry for them having to be out at least $500 on repairs plus they agreed to continue paying the other dealership to fix. It has taken 3 tries so far with no apparent progress, are we sure it's not rocket science? Heh

Evaporator next?

I was having AC problems as well so I have been tracking my temperatures pretty closely. Here is what I am seeing after the car has been running for a while. Note I am using an electronic thermometer with a probe that I am dropping in the vents.

The temp seems to vary between 45 and 55 depending on if the compressor is running and the engine speed. The lowest consistent temp I've seen is 42 when driving for longer stretches. Typically the temp runs between 48-52 but it really depends on the number of stop lights you hit in town.

I have a black interior and I think the problem is that the Rogue AC can't keep up with the heat the interior puts out. With the angle of the windshield, the dash seems to almost always be getting sun and keeping warm.

I would also make sure that you are using the recirculate setting on the AC after you purge the hot air when you return to your parked car. You don't want to be trying to cool the outside air, you want to cool the air inside the car which, presumably, is already at a lower temp than the outside temp.

One thing you can check that's pretty easy, and I assume the place you bought it from or the dealer would have checked because it's really so simple. Sometimes we forget the simple. You can do it yourself. Raise the hood, start the vehicle and put the air conditioning on max. The fans right behind he radiator should immediately start to run. If they aren't running the ac will not function properly.

I guess works as designed. The dealer took a look at it a second time and quoted the FSM, where (re-circulating), with temperature at intake at 77 and 65% humidity, the table says to expect 52-57 degrees out of the central vent, and they measured 53, well within the norm.

In the meantime over the weekend I "test drove" another 2010 Rogue for comparison's sake, which registered about 10-12 degrees colder using my temperature probe. While my mom's Rogue was 58, this one was 44-46, after sitting on the lot in direct sun, albeit this test subject was not black, but rather gray. I cannot explain this discrepancy away, but I suppose it will just always remain a mystery.

In any case, guess I should have headed straight for the FSM instead of wasting people's time. I will just instruct my mom to park in the shade and make sure to always keep it on Max A/C.

Thanks.

i dunno man sounds fishy. Just replaced the compressor and high pressure sensor on my 2010 rogue, and when we charged it with the correct amount of R134a (18oz), on max a/c it was registering at 39 degrees. It was 28C out that day, so 82.4F. Vehicle was in the shade.

the number from the FSM sounds ridiculously high. But if you have it in black and white I guess what can you do.

I had problems with mine recently (2008 Rogue).

Apparently I had overfilled it.
My (2 different) pressure gauges (low pressure side only) both showed it to be in the low-to-mid are of recommended pressure for the ambient temperature,
but as soon as everything warmed up the compressor was only coming on for a few seconds and then went off again.

You can easily hear it cycle with the hood open,
I use the Android-app Torque Pro and a Bluetooth dongle, it shows you when the compressor is on or off.
(Not sure if the free version shows it as well)

Once I had it down to what apparently is good pressure I now get ~45F at the vents with ~85F outside air (not using recirculation).
Good enough for me.
Both my gauges now show it to be at the low end of recommended pressure range.

Does your compressor stay on when on max. cooling ?

-S