Hello NAM! I'm having air conditioning issues.

System was possibly overcharged, but unsure(didn't get an accurate weight of the recovered refrigerant). Blew cold air from the passenger side vents, and warm air from the driver side. Also had significant whining from the compressor in stop and go traffic, but quiet at higher speeds(sounded like a second supercharger!)

System was drained and had a vacuum applied to it, held good vacuum, so I started recharging it. Got about 8 ounces of refrigerant in, and started noticing issues. The compressor was very noisy(whining mainly), the vents were still blowing quite hot air, and the high side pressure was getting very, very high(330PSI according to my gauge) while the low side pressure was staying below 35-40PSI. The electric fan kicked on, which dropped the high side pressure dramatically and quieted the compressor down, but shut back off after a moment which caused a pressure rise and lots of noise from the compressor.

The electric fan was recently replaced, and I believe low and high speeds are operating normally. Is the fan supposed to turn on with the compressor? If so, what triggers that and how can I diagnose it? Might I have a bad pressure switch?


After doing some further reading, I might have a defective fan resistor on the new fan. From what I'm reading, my high fan is cycling off and on, but my low fan isn't. I'm going to be quite irritated if that's the case.

 

Bad expansion valve. But that’s just a guess from an amateur

 

@SkiahMutt - just checking in - have you had a chance to get this resolved? Thanks!

 

@SkiahMutt - checking in again to see if you had the time to get this looked at and if a resolution was identified? Thanks!

 

Sorta? My low speed fan ended up being kaput(well, it was a wiring/fusebox issue), after fixing that I have A/C again, but my pressures are still too high and my compressor is still too noisy. Unfortunately I've been very unmotivated to work on the Mini lately, so I've just left it alone.

 

I'm leaning towards mine being a problem with the expansion valve. I've ordered that and a new receiver/drier and I'll give that a go.