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Had a problem in the wifes car for a while now. The A/C system seemed to have a mind of its own. The compressor would run and you could tell the system was blowing cold air, but at the worst times, the vent doors that let the air into the cabin would close off. I took the car to a good independent volvo shop in Norfolk VA (Eurotech Autoworks) an they looked at it on the spot for me. The questions he asked were, Does it happen when you are accelerating (No) and can you here a hissing sound (No again). They took it for a test drive and pulled off one of the lower dash covers but could not get it to malfunction. At that point he told me it could be an electronic vaccuum controller/modulator that is on the passenger side of the dash and costs about 200 from the dealer. He told me that he could only get it from the dealer and that it was easy enough to replace by myself. Other than that, he couldn't hazard a guess as to what it could be.
Since the summers are hot here in VA, my wife took over driving the f150 supercrew and I got the volvo. (I'd rather drive the volvo anyday...) I rode around in it for a couple of weeks and when it did go out, I would stick my hand under the dash, wiggle some wires and it would come back on. I knew I was getting close. Yesterday I decided to have it out with the car. Getting under that dash to work isn't lots of fun, but I figured out which component it was. It had one multipin electrical connector and a long 8+ vaccuum hose connector on it. I could wiggle the electrical connector and listen to the vaccuum doors open and close at will. Got it out after about a half an hour (didn't want to hose up any of the connections) and took it inside. I could not see any obvious defects on the circuit board, but past experience with electronics told me there could be a very slight crack in one of the solder joints. I ended up resoldering all the connections for connector and after putting it back in the car, the A/C worked fine. Put that one in your back pocket if it ever happens to you.
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97 S90 with 154K miles still going strong
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