Intermittent aircon

[Darwinian]

The aircon in my 2019 Stinger GT intermittently stops cooling while driving, often after about 5 minutes of driving after being parked in the sun for the day but sometimes more randomly. It'll mostly start cooling again after going around a corner (or maybe a bump in the road)! I've got an OBD2 monitor connected and can see that the AC pressure drops instantly to about 12 psi when the problem occurs, then jumps back up to normal (120 - 150 psi) when it comes good again. Dropping down gears to increase RPM has no impact. The cabin filter has been changed with no impact. The local dealer just fobs me off ("we're not able to replicate the problem") and it's a 3000km drive to get to another dealer, so I'll do what I can to either fix it myself or at least try to get enough info to be able to tell the dealer where to look. Does anyone have any suggestions, or any info on the cabling, switches, component locations etc that might help?

 

[Ah GetFd]

You could try a car airconditoning mob. They will have a better idea. Where in Australia do you need to drive 3000kms to another dealer? Most capitals have a dozen dealers.

It could be thermostat under dash somewhere not switching the aircon in and out meaning it stays on causing icing up. The system may then shut down.

Look under the car after 20 mins and see if there is a bigger puddle of water under the car than normal.

You may also have another fault. First thing modern cars do is shut down non essential stuff like aircon This happens on injector failures, etc. But you should be getting other codes

 

[Darwinian]

Thanks for your reply. There's no fault codes.
I'm in Darwin. It's a very long drive to anywhere that has multiple Kia dealers. Here there's one dealer that "represents" many brands including Kia. Their latest tactic is to charge for their time if they don't find a fault, so it's in their interest to not find faults. When I gave them printouts of the OBD2 data showing graphs of aircon pressure, rpm, speed, intake temp, etc they gave me a VW form to fill in when it happens.

 

[Ah GetFd]

Take it to an air conditioning mob. They know what to look for. There would have to be a few of those in Darwin.

 

[Snowwhite]

Mine has done this; I haven't measured the AC pressure, but I have felt the warm air after a short stop (ie gas station, or drop something off at a post office or store, etc) and gotten back in the car. My Genesis did it too. I think it's some logic in the AC system somewhere to prevent damage. It does get cold again soon enough and usually my car is still cool enough that it isnt' really much of an issue for me.

 

[Ah GetFd]

I had a GM G8 V8 since new (Commodore SSV V8) and it had these types of issues.

1. Low cool setting couple with low fan caused the condensor in the dash to ice up causing a blockage to air flow. The air then heated up as there was no effective cooling transfer.
Symptoms were large puddles of water under the car after being stopped for 20 minutes or so or discharge when the car was next started.

2. A failure of a fuel injector caused multiple alarms including ABS fail and Aircon shut down. These were engine protections built in by GM to reduce electrical load and effort on the engine while it was in a disabled state.

Aircon crowds are pretty good at diagnosing the basics of airconditioner failure, can pressure test the system, identify "oil leaks" which is put into the gas, around seals and so on. Look for problems with dryers, replace the reed valve at an aircon service anyway and regas with a warranty and away you go. Dealers often send the cars to these places anyway.