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HELP!!! A/C Trouble! 2006 Jeep Wrangler X

21K views 12 replies 7 participants last post by  jcannare1 
#1 ·
Hello All!

I'm new Wrangler owner, only had my TJ for about 4 months but I have been having A/C trouble almost the entire time I've owned it.

For the first few weeks it blew cold air and then it just suddenly stopped one morning when I was leaving for work.

I assumed it was a freon issue, so I purchased a kit and attempted to recharge the system. The system wouldn't take any freon from the kit when I hooked it up.

My father in law, who was helping me, tested the sytem and it looks like it had plenty of freon in it, so now I'm unsure what to do. I've spent a lot of time reading online about different issues that could cause the problem... blown fuse, bad switch, condenser door, compressor issues... I'm just unsure where to start looking.

Are there any online resources that will walk you through how to check these different areas for issues?

Any suggestions or advice is welcomed!

Thanks in advance for your time and help!
 
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#3 ·
Could it be due to putting freon in a system it isn't designed for? I don't know but it should be R134. Freon was outlawed in the mid 90s I believe.

Hah. Well I don't really know, try taking down your top and driving down the road, it's the only AC I have and works for me.
 
#4 ·
Those DIY kits are the absolute worst things you can put in your AC system. In fact most shops will refuse to work on your AC system if they know or find out that you have used that stuff. Its pure garbage, it does nothing but plug the system up with junk.
 
#5 ·
Sorry. We used R134a not freon.

I don't hear the compressor click when I turn on the A/C but I will double check this afternoon. Does that necessarily mean the compressor is bad? Or could it be a fuse?

A few other details that may help:

-it appears there is R134a in the system but it will not blow any cool air at all.
-there doesn't appear to be a leak where the r134a would escape
-heater and defrost both still work great
-all fan speeds work too

Thanks again for your help!

Ps. I don't mind riding with windows down or the top off... But during the week I'm a hospice chaplain and do visits at home for patients and its not super professional to show drenched by sweat or rain.
 
#6 ·
You can look at the compressor pulley & see if the compressor clutch is engaging & turning the compressor when the a/c is switched on. If not then check fuse 11 in the block behind the glove box & fuse 21 in the PDC in front of the battery. If both are good the mode switch on the HVAC panel could be bad & not sending the signal to the compressor when switching to a/c or defrost, or either the high or low pressure switches could be bad. If the compressor is engaging then you have to check under the dash to see if the blend door is moving when you turn the temp dial from hot to cold.
 
#8 ·
Here is a link to fixing the blend door motor. There is a photo of the motor & other good info.

Blend door motor repair


Here is a link to the wiring diagram. It is for a little earlier model & some of the wire colors are different.

Wiring diagram


What has to happen is the top wire on the 3 wire connector (blue/orange on yours, I think) on the mode switch has to connect to the bottom (black) one when on a/c or defrost. That should be the first 2 & last 2 positions on the dial. That grounds the relay to start the compressor. That assumes the high & low pressure switches are closed. If the pressure gets too high or low they are to open & stop the compressor to protect the system. One of those switches could be bad & open the circuit preventing the compressor from engaging.

Here is a link to some FSMs. They don’t go past ’03 but in the a/c chapter of the ’03 in the controls section there is info on the pressure switches & the blend door motor that will apply to yours. The a/c wiring diagrams are in the wiring chapter as well.

See online read only FSMs here:


Jeep Knowledge Base
You may have to go to the bottom of the page & pick Jeep Resources & online manuals if it directs you to home page rather than the knowledge base.
Pick your model & year then on the drop down menu pick the chapter you need.
 
#9 ·
Thanks again! I really appreciate your help.

One more question...

I stopped in at a local auto parts store today to see if they had a "how to" manual for basic repair on a wrangler... the guy working the counter inquired why I was looking and I explained my problem. He recommended "A/C pro" which is basically the canned R134a (which I already tried) but this comes with a gauge that gives pressure readings on your A/C system as well (which I did not have when I originally tried to put R134a in)...

Do you think I should try this first before moving on to the other possibilities?

My sense is that it isn't a leak because I went from having cold air one day to not having cold air the next morning... which leads me to believing it's most likely a bad switch, fuse, blend door and not a leak that I would assume would take more time than just 8-10 hours of the system being off.

Again, thanks for your help! Looks like I'll be spending tomorrow under the hood/dash.
 
#10 ·
Any manual except the factory service manual (FSM) will be too general & not yr specific. There have been many changes to the TJ Wranglers over the yrs they were produced that are best documented in the yr specific FSMs. If you plan on doing much work on yours it will be worth either finding one on e-bay or the like or even biting the bullet & getting one from Chrysler. For the a/c, the online one linked above should be close enough.


As for the immediate issue, I think if you start from the beginning as I described you will find the problem. Any troubleshooting is a process. One step leads to the next. If for sure the compressor clutch is not engaging, & the fuses are good & the mode switch is grounding the relay as it should then you can bypass the low pressure switch by jumping or crossing the 2 wires there together & see if the compressor engages. If it does not, you can pretty much rule out low or no refrigerant (R-134). When the system loses pressure that switch opens. Then you can test the high pressure switch the same way.
 
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