Looking for an A/C guru. My R53 A/C is not cooling. Blower is fine. Attempted recharge in case there was a leak (it worked last time I used it last summer) but the compressor clutch will not engage and the freon will not circulate or charge without a working clutch. Note: when I first attempted to charge the system the clutch did engage but then I heard a hissing sound that was obviously the freon leaking out of the system. Freon is transparent so I was unable to locate the leak. Attempted to add dye to locate the leak but, again, the system won't charge with a non-operational clutch. Has anyone run into this chicken & egg issue before -- system won't charge due to clutch but non-operating clutch prevents it from charging? Is there a way to bypass the compressor clutch and pressurize the system to ID the leak? Anyone?

 

The condenser coil is prone to damage from road debris. It should be obvious with a visual inspection.
You can partially charge the system without running the compressor. Put in enough to activate the pressure switch and then wait 2-3 minutes for the pressures in the system to equalize before turning on the compressor and topping it off.

 

I hate ac systems, they are complex and can't really be maintained as a diy. Having said that, the clutch won't come on when the pressure is too low. You should be able to jump the relay but I am not sure if you want to because the compressor won't be happy running dry.

Recently I had the same experience, filled up using a can but wasn't holding pressure. Could not find any leak in the usual places. Untill I looked under the car and found some dye at the ac drip tube...meaning the evaporator was leaking.
There is actually an inspection hole on the heaterbox which fits an endoscope.


Pull this round **** off and you have an inspection hole which fits an endoscope to check if the evaporator is leaking.

The result is I am now in the middle of replacing that evaporator. It's a terrible job I never want to do again tbh. Because you have you pull everything apart.

Everything; trims, clocks, dashboard, frame, crashbar and finally the heaterbox.

I really hope it's not you evaporator!

 

Ugh!!!

 

I’ll second this. In the 16 years that I have owned my R53, I’ve had what I believe are the two most common a/c failures. But I am no a/c guru.

Last year it was a leak from the condenser, which became obvious when I took off the front bumper cover, put the car in front end service mode for some other work and examined the condenser while I was in there. I swapped in an aftermarket condenser and drier, put the whole system on a vacuum soak, then recharged the system. It is still working great one year later.

The other a/c problem I had was a seemingly bad compressor clutch due to a bad compressor clutch coil. I ended up replacing the whole compressor. I did not enjoy doing that job at all.