2001 - No front A/C - Rear A/C Works

[jgattian]

Hello,

My 2001 Windstar has an air-conditioning problem. The rear A/C and heat work properly. The front however does not blow cold air. I replaced the front blend door actuator hoping that would be the easy fix. No change. The other vacuum motors seem to be working properly meaning that there not a vacuum leak.

Maybe there are two separate accumulators for the refrigerant and the front one is low? The A/C clutch seems to cycle more than normal.

[tripletdaddy]

I'm surprised I'm the first to take a crack at this, but I'll give it a try and something for you to do and think about. First, if you haven't, you should research this with the search option on the main Windstar page, as your problem has been previously covered in past threads but not perfectly, exactly as yours, but enough to be helpful.

Now, I'm going to try to get more info to get a better picture. Do you have heat up front? Do you have manual controls or electronic? Does air blow where it's supposed to for ALL of the settings and does it blow hard like it used too? There's are 4 doors in the hvac system, but only one influences the temp directly, while the others basically direct the air in different directions. Have you confirmed your new blend door actuator is working properly? With key on run, can you hear it moving when changing the temp setting and does it change the heat temp too? When you turn on the ac, at the accumulator/dryer the system splits for the front and back on pass. side under cowl, are both lines equally cold and sweaty or just one, most likely to the back?

Based on your preliminary assessment, you may be low on refrigerant because of the frequent cycling, but I kind of doubt that since you still have cold ac in the back. Having eliminated a lot of the above possiblities leaves me with two possibilities. It may not be properly charged, or it is possible that you have a blockage in the loop that goes to the front. And, ttbomk, it's all one sytem, but with two evaporator loops, front and back.

[jgattian]

Originally Posted by tripletdaddy

Do you have heat up front? Do you have manual controls or electronic? Does air blow where it's supposed to for ALL of the settings and does it blow hard like it used too?

Yes the heat works up front.

I have manual controls.

Yes the air blows from all of the settings and when on high speed hard.

I will have to wait till morning to check the temperature of the accumulator lines going to the front and rear systems.

[jgattian]

The problem was low refrigerant due to the very long and expensive front hose having a leak.

New hose, new refrigerant and good as new.