AC lines freezing up

[FusionDiffusion]

Hmm, so were they able to take a look at the old evaporator to see if it was blocking the airflow like they suspected?

[borland]

Glad you finally got it fixed.

 

Yes, Did they say they found the problem was actually air flow blockage? If that's the case, It would be nice to know how that occurred, since it was not a factory defect (worked well from new) and since the car has a cabin filter which would prevent any air flow clogging from dust?

[thefoeyouknow]

I have a theory about that. I think you had a desiccant release from the condenser/receiver dryer. This obstructs the system. You replaced almost everything, so I will assume as you went along replacing, you were also clearing the system of contaminated components until only the evaporator remained. I've been seeing an absurd amount of this on Escapes, but when we meet our first one, it went about like yours. Now we know what to look for. I can diagnose an obstructed system in 5 minutes with just manifold gauges now. And we know to flush the condenser and evaporator, replace the expansion valve and accumulator, and the filtered discharge line. Evacuate and recharge and ship it.

[FusionDiffusion]

Hmm. So is the desiccant material small enough to get past the filter screen on the TXV?

[thefoeyouknow]

TXV systems don't HAVE a filter screen like a fixed orifice system. That's one thing that Escape and Fusion have in common is that they're both expansion valve systems. It probably affects dispersal differently that Fusion has it's Rx/dryer built into the condenser, but I see it as a strong possibility. If Ford paid all this money for techs to beat their heads against it for so long, you can bet that Warranty Claims calls all those parts back for analysis.

[pcsgrp35se]

Glad you finally got it fixed.

 

Yes, Did they say they found the problem was actually air flow blockage? If that's the case, It would be nice to know how that occurred, since it was not a factory defect (worked well from new) and since the car has a cabin filter which would prevent any air flow clogging from dust?

I think they are a little lost on what the problem was. They tech blew air thru the evaporator and didn't think it was plugged. I did have this problem once the first time I used the a/c on a warm humid day on a longer trip. The system froze up on my way out to Iowa. I was near a ford dealership on I80 so I pulled in and in the 15 minutes it took for them to take a look at the car, there was a pool of water underneath and the problem "fixed itself" The dealer suggested that I just leave the climate control on a temp and not use the fan speed control like on a manual a/c car. I did that and didn't have the problem again until it popped up last summer. As far as a blockage, the FSE seemed to think that was the issue and I guess changing everything out got rid of whatever was causing the blockage but I did notice after they changed the condenser, it froze up within a few minutes not the normal 20 minutes so perhaps the theory that whatever was in there got blow into the evaporator might be what occurred. We are going to get some 70's over the next few days and I will run the a/c to see if it happens again. I sure hope not because I am tired of all of this

[pcsgrp35se]

Problem Fixed. Ford replaced the evaporator and that solved the problem A/C worked without any issues for the rest of the warmer September. What I did notice was when I set the climate control at 70deg for heat, the a/c compressor cycled, something it didn't to in the past. Really put a damper on mpg's specially with the reformulated gas in the NE. I dropped 3-4mpg's. I notice if I did a selection of where I wanted the air to blow, that (the buttons on the control head on the right side) the a/c compress or would not cycle and mpg's improved. When I spoke to ford service the tech said that was the way it was supposed to work ????? It doesn't matter because I was so frustrated with the year long situation and some other things were starting to go at 80k miles I decided to get rid of the fusion. Mechanically the car was outstanding but the little electrical and nuisance issues that kept popping up over the past year was very frustrating and wasn't worth the aggravation.

 

For those of you who have an extended warrantee, I still had a year in time and 15k miles left and when I called ford to get a refund on the unused portion of the warrantee, I was told that since they did work under the extended warrantee (over $5k spent trying to fix the a/c problem which took them a year to figure out) that any potential refund would be reduced by the amount they paid out. So in other words, if you get the extended warrantee and sell your car before it expires, if you had any work done, they reduce what they would give you back by the amount of the work. When I got the car they dealer told me that not only would it be transferrable but if I sold it I would get a refund on the remaining time......................they were not telling me the truth. When I sold my Altima, which was a real lemon car, Nissan refunded me the balance on the extended warrantee with no issue! Way to go Ford! ! !