Is the system sweating on the low side or draining water out the condensation drain after a few minutes like it should? If so, the issue may be under the dash and may be the same thing mine is now going through with a failing blend door actuator.

 

It may be the blend door is not working and keeping the heat cycle going. The AC can not overwhelm the heat and the cold air is not coming into the cab.

 

Hmm I’ll have to check. Is there a way to check it without taking the dash apart?

 

Yes, but you have to put yourself into "service position". With your head on the floor under the dash, put your feet up on the backrest of the seat with the headrest between them. Then, look to the driver's side and you will see a lever with a pivot point. This is the blend door lever. An actuator rod should attach to it and go up behind the glove box. The actuator is behind the glovebox, but if it is failing, you should easily be able to push the rod down and have the A/C come on. The attachment point for the actuator rod should be down to the level of the parting line between the two parts of the plenum box. All of this assumes you have the automatic A/C system (Looks like the MINI logo) and not the simpler base model 3 dial A/C system which just runs off some cables. It too attaches here but I believe it is set up differently. I have only ever worked on my car with the automatic A/C so I can't be certain.

 

Thank you yes it’s the auto ac and I’ll check tomorrow. Thanks for the info!

 

Also just to be sure I understand the pressure switch is under the air box correct? Because I installed a cai a few months back and thought maybe I knocked the plug off. If that’s possible would the ac clutch still engage? I just don’t want to remove all of that to find out it’s on there.

 

I did run into some other issues with mine and it may not be so simple. I posted about it in my thread on my issue.

 

Thanks and read your thread however I don’t think it’s my blend door cause my air is not hot just ambient whatever the outside air temp is. Can the compressor be bad even though the clutch is engaged? It only has 70k miles on it.

 

It is doubtful, that this can happen. At least it would be very unusual for something like this to happen.
It may be low enough on 134a, that there is not enough cooling from the system. You need a vacuum pump and a gauge set to properly fill the system.
This needs to be done at any rate, as you have to have cooling, before it can feel cold!

Note: AC works by taking out the hot that is coming into the evaporator under the dash and blowing out the de-heated air it is blowing into the passenger area.

 

After doing some more checking it sounds like it could have a bad expansion valve, it has those symptoms but won’t know till I put some gauges on it.

 

If the pressures are equal on the high and low side then it can be the compressor. I have seen it before on a Honda Accord. The compressor ran but did nothing.