1998 Avalon A/C Issues

[ignoreme]

About a month ago I started having some A/C issues with my 1998 Avalon. If I turn on the fan and press the A/C button the light turns on for a split second and nothing happens. If I turn on the fan, press and hold the A/C button the light will come on and the A/C will start up and the air gets cold. As soon as I release the button the light goes off, the A/C will shut down, and the air starts getting warm again.

My first through was that I needed to recharge the A/C, but since the A/C wouldn't stay on I didn't know how to do this. I then read that sometimes the pressure could be so low that it wouldn't accept a recharge and that you would need to disconnect the pressure switch connector and put a paper clip between the 1 and 4 terminal's to do the charge then reattach it when done.

I disconnected the pressure switch and inserted the paper clip in the correct terminals, attached the can of Freon, started up the car, and pressed the A/C button. There was no change in its actions and it wouldn't stay on. I tried holding in the button so the A/C would turn on, and I did this for a few minutes, and then went back to check the bottle of Freon. The bottle was barely cool, so I don't think it was doing much.

So I am not sure what to do from here. I am in no way an expert in this area, so any help would be truly appreciated.

[zirconx]

I think you're going to need to take it to a shop. There could be a lot of different problems.

When I filled mine it was a completely empty system, but didn't have any problems with the low pressure switch.

Have you tested your high pressure switch? Maybe thats whats bad - the compressor starts to run but the high pressure switch doesn't turn on/off, so the system thinks something is wrong and turns off the compressor.

[toyomoho]

Check to see if the A/C system has a sight glass near the dryer. This would allow you to see the Freon inside the system and check for air bubbles when operating, a sign of low fluid.