Electrical prob for A/C?

[Crazygirl]

Last November my 2001 Town and Country Limited (3.8L), took a header into a huge ditch. The way we hit the ground the A/C condenser was pushed back into the radiator, and the radiator was broken, along with the two plastic cooling fans. My husband and a friend were able to pull everything back into place and straighten out the front end, although my front clip is completely broken and had to be removed. I plan on getting it replaced soon.
However, though we replaced the fans and radiator, and the A/C condenser did not appear to be damaged, there obviously had to be damage because of a hit like that. The heating system works fine, and the van has never overheated. But when we tried the A/C, only warm air blew out. My hubby said to let it be for the time being and we would replace the condenser after winter was over. Since we had a heat spell not too long ago here in Iowa, I decided it was time to get it checked out. My hubby said there was a place he passed by that said they do free A/C checks, so I made an appointment and went.
I also needed my oil changed, so I had them take care of that. They charged double what I normally pay at the Meineke near my home for an oil change, but since they were doing the A/C check for free, I felt obligated to have them do some other work on my vehicle as well. The guy at the station (I am hesitant to name them, all I will say is they are a national chain) said the A/C was fine but appeared to be an electrical problem. He advised me I should make another appointment to bring my T&C in for a diagnostic. He said he couldn't do it while I was there since it was too late in the day (it was 4pm when he got done, and there were no other cars there), and he would have to carve out at least an hour to an hour and a half to run the diagnostic. He said it would be a flat $75, and could take 20 minutes or 90 minutes to locate the problem. He did not say what it would cost to actually repair the problem once found, but said the $75 does not cover any of the repairs. I asked him if it was possible that a hose was pinched or if it just needed refrigerant, and he said "everything is okay, it just appears to be an electrical problem". He told me the compressor is not kicking in, so we need to find out why.
My first question is, if the compressor is not kicking in, how can he tell if the coolant level is okay? My next question is, on the printout they gave me, it reads "Electrical issue w/air conditioning that would require computer diagnostic service. Both the a/c fuse and relay have tested ok". Does that mean that those are the ONLY things they tested? And if just those 2 things are fine, is it automatically an electrical problem? How do I know there isn't a pinhole leak in the condenser? And why would it take more than an hour to run a diagnostic if they seem to have narrowed the problem down to a simple wiring thing?
I am not looking forward to taking my TC back there but I have to have a/c in my van. Does anyone have any advice?

[Crazygirl]

My hubby now thinks perhaps the compressor isn't kicking in because of a safety feature. The sensor that tells us what the temperature is outside is busted, and always says it is -40 below outside, so perhaps that reading is not allowing it to blow cold air? I need to get a wiring diagram to see if it could also still be a wiring problem. Any info anyone can provide would be helpful. Thanks!

[Spit]

You can 'jump' the compressor clutch...that is hook up some leads to it and connect them to the battery. With the engine running in this jumped condition the compressor should run and should cool...assuming that the R-134 is still in the system and has not leaked out.
If the clutch kicks in and the compresor runs and it doesn't get cool..your R-134 has leaked out.

I have a 97 that had lots of AC trouble and I made up a set of jumpers with small insulated aligator clips at one end and larger clips for the battery cables at the other. I have jumped or hot wired it a number of times for testing purposes. Don't leave it that way but to verify that the compresor runs, that it will cool etc... this is an easy work around.

As far as the cause of your problem..assuming that the compressor will run and cool when jumped ...You need to determine what component is preventing the compressor from running.

there are pressure switches that prevent the clutch from engaging the compressor one is a low pressure switch (keeps the compressor from runing if too little refrigerant) and a high pressure switch which works just the the same way but opens if too much pressure.

Of course the HVAC controller/thermostat needs to be working okay and calling for cold air

The relay that the tech is talking about turns the radiator fans on...this could be a problem but not a problem causing the AC not to run..more likely it would cause the radiator to overheat.

Good luck

Spit