Frustrating a/c problem

Jesse Silvers · June 25, 2020

I'm at my wits end, guys. I have an '05 Silverado 1500 with a 4.8 V8. The a/c starting acting up about 6 months ago, or at the end of last summer. I live in Texas so, ya, summer lasts until December. Anyway,the a/c will work intermittently, usually it works well when I first start it up, or when I am just idling in park, but as soon as I start to drive it, it just quits working. I had a guy from my neighborhood who is a mechanic look at it, and he couldn't find anything wrong with the a/c, so he said it was probably the ECM malfunctioning and shutting down the a/c. I had him replace the ECM, but it still had the same problem. At that point, I took it to a local shop with a good standing in my community, and they also couldn't find a problem with the a/c, but found several cooling system leaks, which they fixed. They also said that the ECM probably was never the problem, but it would shut down the a/c when the truck had a cooling system leak in order to prevent overheating. I got the truck back from the shop, and the a/c worked all the way to work, but on the trip home it quit once again. At this point, I'm out of about a thousand dollars, and the a/c still doesn't work. I'm just about ready to trade the truck in and buy another one just so i ca have a truck with A/C! Any input of advice would be very helpful

tlaw91 · June 26, 2020

When it stops working unplug the ac pressure sensor and jump the two terminals with a paper clip and see if it starts working again

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

davester · June 26, 2020

First, never have that guy from your neighborhood look at your vehicle again. If you do, he's gonna cost you a lot more money...

Second, the cooling system leaks had nothing to do with A/C. Probably good that they were fixed, if they were real (as you didn't mention noticing them before..)

I would suggest going to an A/C shop vs a general mechanic, and have them check the a/c system pressures both when the system is cold and when it's been used awhile.

tlaw91 · June 26, 2020

I have OP some free advice to check his pressure sensor, he seemed to be all out of cash from his poor choices.
On the other hand, you do need to be taking your vehicle to a reputable shop. Like a known good dealer.
I actually have a story that happened to me yesterday!
Man with outlook comes in (the Saturn Acadia thing) says “hey replace my starter. My guy says it needs one.”
Advisor asks some questions, “why did they say that? Are you sure it’s $650? You don’t want diagnosis first?”
He says “no thanks they’re sure that what it is”
Uh. Ok.
So when I get done with the starter the car doesn’t start.
Guy pays checkout time, I find an old aftermarket kill switch and remove it, he paid us 300 to find and fix it correctly including diag.
Unfortunately there isn’t any going back on the starter so his total was 900.
I made a good amount of money on his insistence of “his mekanik”

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk