[Three_thirty_I]

So this past Friday I was driving and decided to turn the aircon on, immediately realised that things weren't working as normal, no change in air temperature, and didn't feel the effect of the aircon compressor on the engine. When I got home I started paying attention to what was relevant. The compressor wasn't engaging, and the electric cooling fan wasn't switching on. But then I was also concerned by the fact that with the engine getting warmer from idling in my garage, the electric cooling fan wasn't coming on to cool the engine.

A bit later I checked all relevant fuses for the aircon and all were fine. I then went for a drive with the hidden cluster menu on coolant temperature to see what is happening there, everything seemed to behave as normal with the temps climbing and dipping as I am used to. But once again, when idling in the garage, and the coolant temp finally sitting on 102 degrees Celsius, I was concerned that the electric cooling fan was not coming on at all, so I switched the engine off, worrying that it had failed somehow. I then got my laptop going and was able to test activate the electric cooling fan via INPA, so the fan DOES work, let it run the three different speed profiles, 15%, 50% and 90%.

So I am going to get the car to an aircon specialist this week, my suspicion is that it has simply run out of gas, possibly has a slow leak. When I bought the car at the beginning of the year, the previous owner did mention that he felt that the aircon wasn't making as cold on the one side as the other, typically an indication that the gas is low. But why on earth would the electric cooling fan be so reluctant to come on, or come on at all?

[StradaRedlands]

Shot in the dark, but check your battery as well. Our AC quit working when the battery was going bad. I believe it threw a code though, something about device cutoff due to voltage. Not sure on that , just my recollection.

As for the fan, maybe it just wasn't needed. If you're running 102C, isn't that the target operating temp?

[eljay]

Check the refrigerant pressure in INPA

[Three_thirty_I]

Originally Posted by StradaRedlands

Shot in the dark, but check your battery as well. Our AC quit working when the battery was going bad. I believe it threw a code though, something about device cutoff due to voltage. Not sure on that , just my recollection.

As for the fan, maybe it just wasn't needed. If you're running 102C, isn't that the target operating temp?

Originally Posted by eljay

Check the refrigerant pressure in INPA

Quick update: I took the car to an aircon specialist this morning to have a quick look, no issue with aircon refrigerant gas, he suspects the coil in the aircon compressor. So I have booked the car in so that they can sort this out. As for the battery, it is still fine, hasn't let me down, and I am often maintaining it with my Ctek charger when necessary. As for the coolant temperature, I am still perplexed - I purposely had the temperature climb to 106 degrees Celsius and the fan still didn't kick in. I then disconnected the temperature sensor which then triggered the cooling fan to kick in, the hidden menu temperature then showed as inactive. After a minute or two I plugged the sensor back in and the temperature reading returned and fan switched off. So this tells me that the sensor and fan are working still as normal, same with the coolant pump and thermostat, but something is still preventing the fan from running. Weird!

[Three_thirty_I]

Just a quick update:

So my appointment to take my car in for the aircon diagnosis happened on Monday, and maddening it decided to work the moment they wanted to test it. Admittedly I hadn't tried to turn it on that day, so not sure what fixed itself in the meantime. But it's working for now, I am still unsure about the cooling fan coming on to cool the engine, it hasn't come on that I could notice except for when the aircon is on. I am just going to keep an eye on it for now.

In my searching, I found this thread here: N52 - Radiator fan not running