S14 A/C problems

[itsRaine]

Okay so my air conditioning blows air, but it's whatever air is outside (temperature-wise). Same with my heater. In other words, I have a basic fan - no heat when I need it, no cold when I need it. I tried recharging the R134a, but it didn't seem to do the trick. I took the dash out to check if all the air passage doors were moving, and all worked fine except for the "air mixture door" which was stuck in "heat" position. Nevertheless I get no heat. I don't want to blindly replace each part until I figure out a solution, unless there's like a checklist to run through in diagnosing A/C problems. I need my A/C and heater working, not just because it's so hot right now in SoCal, but in winter it can get pretty cold outside as well.

[NISTECH]

If your air mix door is stuck in the heat position ,the car is warmed up and it has coolant in it,the vents will blow hot air when it is on,no way around that. determine if your car has coolant in it and the heater core hoses are not bypassed under the hood, and go from there.

[itsRaine]

There is coolant (if you're referring to the radiator?) and even after driving for hours there's no heat nor cool air. The engine was left stock by the previous owner so I doubt there's any bypasses anywhere.

The only time I get a hint of cool air is on startup, if I were to start the car and turn on the a/c to high... but I suspect that's just air trapped in the system...

any other ideas?

[NISTECH]

the system is not that complex if there is coolant in the engine and your heater hoses are connected to the heater core then the hot coolant is getting in to the heater core. in the car if the air mix door is stcuk full hot and the blower motor is on the air the blower motor is pushing goes right through the heater core then out thru the vents. start your car up and get it to full operating temp then grab ahold of both the heater hoses if they are both egually hot and you cant keep your hands on them very long due to the heat then hot coolant is traveling through the heater core.

[itsRaine]

ok did the heater hose check, and yes - they're really hot

[NISTECH]

you should be blowing hot air through your vents. Are you sure your mix door is stuck full hot or is it stuck mid way between hot and cold?

[itsRaine]

you should be blowing hot air through your vents. Are you sure your mix door is stuck full hot or is it stuck mid way between hot and cold?

I'm gonna do some tests and take notes in a few minutes, starting from cold start and going on from there. I'll post the results and maybe it'll shed more light on the subject.

BTW the mix door, if you look at it facing forward from the center console (with the dash out), is stuck completely to the left side, which from diagrams I've seen sends only hot air through when it's closed like that

[itsRaine]

Okay the heater hoses feel pretty hot after about 10 idle, and yet the air coming from the vents seems "not as warm" as it should be. Sliding the temp switch to cold or hot changes nothing to the temperature... whether it's cold start or after 1 hour of driving the temperature of the air coming through the vents always seems the same as outside temp

[double_jd13]

you might need to check the coolant temp and make sure its opening or closing to circulate that warm coolant for the heat.

your not going to get cold just because the ac avaporator is getting all that warm air from the mixture door being open

jason