A while back I surfed posts about A/C cutting out when passing. lots of nice folks offered lots of advice ranging from sensors to possible problems with A/C clutch probably worn etc. Also mentioned was checking freon level.

Well I did check freon level at the time, pressure seemed "normal" using one of those gauges that come with $30-50 recharge packages. But problem persisted, but my ability/time precluded some of the suggestions about adjusting A/C clutch tolerance.

So the other day I was moaning to a neighbor about all above. He said, I'll be back soon. With him he brought pro gear from a friend. Put it on my car...showed low freon. Not low enough to cause compressor to cycle on/off in static conditions of driveway check, but low enough, I guess, that under load and 100F road temp, it was cycling. 1 1/2 cans later.....no problem.

Now...blower motor story.....have seen lots of posts....many with few answers.

A week ago I stopped for gas....got back in car....blower was not working. Checked BOTH fuses that are in blower circuiet...both good. Ah well, I said, a hot drive home. Well a few minutes later blower started working. Then same routine next day.

Dug into my Haynes manual...as well as here. When blower did not work...would not work on any setting. When it worked, it worked on all settings, e.g. 1-2-3-4. Which told me resistor pack is NOT likely culprit.

Well I tore my front passenger side apart yesterday. If you intend to do the same...read Volvospeed/Bay13...because Haynes manual is inaccurate.

1. Why is knee pad bolster there? Just a thin peice of formed aluminum? That has to be removed to get to motor. As well as pulling out glove box. Then even so, still some challenges with close tolerances to get torx wrench to reach blower motor screws.

2. Be patient, as mentioned on Bay 13....lots of wire bundles and connectors are attached to outside of blower motor plastic housing. Only one connector with two wires actually go to fan. Everything else is just attached. Be patient...with a little touch and feeling, you'll be able to devine volvo's preverse way to mount everything.

3. Now the juice. I got motor out. THere was power to the power plug as I suspected there would be. Inspected motor...no grinding noise...turned freely, etc. Put straight 12v on it, worked fine. Plugged back into power plug, turned on ignition....and again worked fine.

4. Great I thought....just crudy/loose connection. Scraped my knuckles a bit more....remounted motor...was still working...put rest of car together....then took a break.

5. Did another check....Inop!!!! Crap. Took kick board back off...banged and jingled everything.....then it worked.

6. Worked fine going to work....but on way home, it first did not work, and then when it decided to after I hit a bump, it sounded different ...particularly on max setting.

7. Just now I checked connections again....moving everything around. Discovered theat in addition to relase for two power plug, there is another fitting on motor to which power plug attaches. It can be pulled off outside motor housing.

8. Just really a junction fitting. But what I noticed is that with everything hooked/plugged up, sometimes motor would run at full normal speed, othertimes it was sluggish or inop unless I jingled fitting.

Seems to me there is likely internal wear of motor brushes or impending winding failure.

Any one out there with ideas?

cherio

chuck