A/C always warm on driver's side, cool on passenger's side

[big_news_1]

Car is my wife's 2000 SSEi.

When we run A/C the air coming out of the driver's side and middle-left vents is substantially warmer than that on the passenger's side. The passenger vents blow cold air, as do the rear console vents. This happens regardless if the dual climate control is set to two different temperatures or not. No matter what temperature is set on the ECC the driver's side always blows relatively warm air.

Where should I start investigating?

[agrazela]

Funny you should post this, I'm making an update thread to an old thread:
http://www.pontiacbonnevilleclub.com/fo ... t=actuator

About the same exact issue on my wife's 2004 LeSabre.

First places to look are adequate coolant pressure in the system, then driver's side actuator. Unfortunately, neither seems to be my issue :
http://www.pontiacbonnevilleclub.com/fo ... 18&t=12984

(P.S., if it turns out to be your driver's side actuator, I've got a known good spare from Morad I don't need)

[spoiledred94]

big_news_1,

I had a similar problem over last summers warmer months on my 94 SE. Same cooler air but on the passenger side along with less flow volume on the drivers. I pulled the dash apart and checked all the wiring and vacuum connections. I checked all the actuators for free movement. I finally found a vac leak in the engine compartment. From the main vac port off the manifold was a smaller vac line going to the firewall, It had slipped off. After I plugged it back in operation was completely normal.

Hope you track it down.


EDIT: Oh, I forgot: With the heater in the winter I got less flow and cooler air on the Drivers side

[agrazela]

Red,

On the pre-00 cars (like my 1998 LeSabre) the A/C programmer is vacuum-controlled; but on our 2000+ H-bodies it is completely electronically controlled.

(And I too once had to fix a broken vac line on the 1998's controller )

[big_news_1]

Fixed the problem! The system needed more refrigerant.

I was not able to test the low/high side pressures, but with the driver's side air seemingly becoming warmer I figured it couldn't hurt anything to put a can of R134a in the system. The A/C was immediately cooler, and my wife is much happier driving around in the 115F heat of Phoenix.

Thanks for the links to the other post, Agrazela.

[white06lacrossecxs]

We had the same problem on my dad's 01 Park Ave. Refrigerant was just slightly low and it started comming out two different temperatures.

[alexcoqui]

I had the same problem, & mine too was low refrigerant. Now the bad news is that the leak came from under the dash & it was an expensive fix.

[pepper65251]

i ran into the same problem today. I checked the freon pressure and it was at 60 psi. i thought it was too high so i let some out until it was within range on my gauge. and i lost the drivers side cold air, passenger side was very cold and driver was outside temp. done some research on the web and everyone said it was low on freon. so i put in another can and the pressure was up to 65 psi and checked the drivers side was cold now.

[RJolly87]

You have also scared up a 7 year old dead thread, which is generally considered a bad forum practice, and is even in violation of site policies in some places.

Please pay attention to post dates before responding, and if something is older than a few months, it's generally best to start a new thread, and link back to the old thread that you found.

Forum information and understanding also changes over time, which is another reason posts should be left in the dust where they rest.

[pepper65251]

i just want to share what i have found but now i will keep my findings to my self. maybe i need to be removed from this forum for my bad forum practice. thank you