Hey guys. My first question concerns my air conditioner. The air compressor worked all last year with no problems. We go to turn it on for the first time a couple of weeks ago, and no cold air. I go out to see if the compressor is turning and it is not, only the wheel is, of course. I know a compressor change is going to be expensive, so I was wondering if there is somewhere else I might be able to find a culprit? Maybe a relay has gone bad or something?

Next question concerns the fuel system. When I drive my volvo, I'd say about 80 to 90 percent of the time it drives fine, but sometimes it gives me fits. I'll be driving along, it doesn't matter if i'm accelerating or cruising, and power will just drop out. I'll mash the gas down and I get nothing. The engine is not quitting, however, and within a few seconds it comes right back full force (depending on how much foot I have in my pedal :) ). The car has 110,000 miles and still has its original fuel filter. Could that be the problem? Is that a good place to start? The Haynes manual says to replace the fuel filter every 50,000 miles, so technically I should be 10,000 miles into my third filter by now.

Thank you for your help

Kevin

Kevin,

My experiences with A/Cs, is that when the freon has completely leaked out, the compressor clutch will not engage. Check first to see if you have ANY coolant in the system.

Your problem with accelerating/cruising could be a fuel problem, but my 940 had a similiar problem. It was the AIR MASS INDICATOR that was bad. This switch regulates the air flow at intake. My switch didn't burn out all-at-once, but when it wasn't working properly, the engine seem to be gasping and not idleing correctly.

Hope this helps.

Search this page (below) for "Air Conditioning" topics. mrsha posted two
about problems he had charging the system himself. I posted one titled
"What is correct way to re-charge air conditioning?" that has some good
follow-up.

What has probably happened is the refrigerant has leaked out
so the system won't run. But, as pointed out in one of the above
threads, there is a detaile dprocedure techs use to trouble-shoot.
(But leaking regrigerant is very common.)

If leaking, the systemn needs to be correctly charged and dye added.
The dye helps pinpoint the leak (at some time in the future). If the
leak is small, you may go a long time until another charge is needed.
If the leak is large, it can be very expensive to fix since there is a
lot of labor charges involved. See http://volvospeed.com/Repair/ac.htm
for the nasty details.

If no check engine light and no codes to go by - then maybe big spring tune up is the right thing. Change all filters - gas, oil & air. If non-turbo change flame trap. Does gas pedel seem a little sticky? You'll likely find a dirty throtle throat - you need to disconnect air hose coming from air filter to do this. I've also noticed that after 40k miles on a distributer/rotor performance declines. And don't forget the spark plugs! They also don't like more then 30-40k on them.

For the A/C try a home recharge kit first or have some do recharge (with dye). You can spend big money to replace A/C parts or just recharge. I got almost 2 years on my '94 with the last recharge - cost of recharge kit $30 (includes coolent, connector & presure gauge). I also have a '93 that has not needed recharging in the year I've had it.

And after all that you'll probably find a leak in a vacuum line.

For a great site on maintenance check out Bay 13 at: http://www.volvospeed.com/maintence.htm

Good Luck!