Have 08 Expedition. A/C has always been good even the other day during a long drive with temp in 90s and with 6 adults inside.

Today the wife started it but it was blowing only warm air. I checked all the settings and they were ok.

She said something felt "tight" when she first started it so decided to shut it off and restart. At that point a/c blew cold.

No idea what she meant by tight. Could maybe a pulley have seized? Or bearing or clutch? First time that's happened.

probably a blend door servo - they get stuck and/or 'confused' - the CPU doesn't know where the door is & think that it is cooling. If it's happening now, it will probably get more frequent. You can see if there is a HVAC reset procedure, that will sometimes fix it forever.

quote:

Originally posted by RogB:
Have 08 Expedition. A/C has always been good even the other day during a long drive with temp in 90s and with 6 adults inside.

Today the wife started it but it was blowing only warm air. I checked all the settings and they were ok.

She said something felt "tight" when she first started it so decided to shut it off and restart. At that point a/c blew cold.

No idea what she meant by tight. Could maybe a pulley have seized? Or bearing or clutch? First time that's happened.

Could be the control box or what ever that part is called. That's the part that has all of the doors that block vents and moves air warm or cold to the dash vents. Follow the cables to their contact points and check to see if they are properly cleaned and lubed.

Same thing happened to my Tundra. One of those cable insertions/contacts had gotten cruddy and the lube had long since turned to mud. I cleaned it and lubed it with white lithium grease. Good as new.

Our 08 expedition a/c went out within the last year. In this year model the dash has to be pulled. It’s an expensive fix. Then the other major problem with this model year is that there is some control module for the electronics under th dash whereas condensation can leak down on it.
Yep. Expensive fixes.

What you can do, is if it happens again, leave the vehicle running open the hood and see if the compressor is running.
If not you might just need it recharged. You can do that yourself. They make the bottles with a hose and a gauge on them. The hose connection will only fit on one connector under the hood, so you cannot screw it up.

It also could be the motor like one poster said. The motor that controls the opening and closing of the heat/air gates.

If it is the motor, that is costly. Had it done on my 2010 F250 and it was around 600$ at the Ford dealership.
Good luck

The filter/dryer could be clogging up or the expansion valve filter.
Will cause excessive pressure against the compressor pistons.

It could be a lot of things.

My compressor will not shut off because it does not get quite up to full pressure (5 yrs old, 75k miles, started at 4 yrs 60k). If it keeps running it can freeze all kinds of things.

If I'm driving at 40mph or so, or faster, and both windows are cracked open, and I run it on high / full cold / outside air, it runs cold enough to give you brain freeze nonstop.

I've experienced every symptom you can imagine over the past 15 months, from 'stuck' or confused actuator doors, to intermittent everything. Finally got it checked, but had a feeling it was the compressor.

The diagnosis was $75 and they had the truck for four hours. The fix is $1,300 from the shop, probably more at a dealership. OEM parts are as cheap as $245 delivered. Compressor, accumulator/dryer, orifice/expansion tube, compressor oil, bag of assorted gaskets. It looks difficult to replace the compressor without a lift.

I ask this with no ill will intended. Did she start the car the first time? Steering would be tight if not started? If the tight happened before moving, no moving occurred, and on off cycle resolved it, my guess is first attempt was fail to start and second was success. This is my WAG.

If this is the answer, laugh with her, not at her.

Not sure about the description of "tight," but on the older Land Cruisers, they'll start to intermittently blow warm air, then go back to working, when the head gasket is starting to go out. No idea if this could be the same or not.

Was an answer found?

PSA it might not help now, however my father was an HVAC tech and he used to tell me that in the winter time to run the AC of the vehicle at least once a month for about 5 minutes to have the Freon and oil run through the system to lubricate it and help the seals. God Bless

quote:

Originally posted by VBVAGUY:
PSA it might not help now, however my father was an HVAC tech and he used to tell me that in the winter time to run the AC of the vehicle at least once a month for about 5 minutes to have the Freon and oil run through the system to lubricate it and help the seals. God Bless

That used to be the advice 30 years ago. Most modern vehicles use the A/C to dry the air during defrost, so the A/C compressor runs nearly as often in the winter as during the summer on newer cars. That's one reason not to leave your car set to defrost when it's not needed because it draws away a little horsepower.