Hi there! First off, car is a Yaris/Belta/Vios 2003. The car's AC is not blowing cold enough air. It does blow cold air, but it doesn't do a great job in cooling the entire cabin even if I set the AC to max. I had the compressor, evaporator, expansion valve (I think that's what it was called) replaced due to leaks. I also had the AC vents cleaned and washed including the condenser, refrigerant charged up, but the AC still doesn't perform that well. Also, to add, my car is heavily tinted with 70% UV block, so that would at least help the AC, but it doesn't. Thanks in advance!
Is your blend door operating properly? If it's mixing in hot air from the heater core you'll never get really cold air out of the vents even if the AC is otherwise working OK.
I am not sure how to check this. Is this something a begginer can do?
Depends on the car's HVAC design whether the blend door position is visible or not. It is a common failure point on older cars.
I think a bi-directional scan tool would be able to show if the blend door is working properly. Not sure if this car is too old, I don't think it is.
Hmmm... My car doesn't have a heater though.
Well... didn't see that one coming. As Yaser suggested, use a thermometer to check the air temp coming out of the vents, both at min and max. If it is not very cold, the first thing I would do is make sure that the system has the correct charge. This is done by vacuuming the system and adding the correct amount of freon by weight.
No heater is definitely a curve ball! I wonder then how the AC outlet temperature is being regulated on that car? Modern automotive HVAC systems work on a reheat principle and blend hot/cold air to arrive at the desired temperature at the vents. (Decades ago AC systems would adjust how often they cycled the compressor to regulate temperature. Haven't seen one like that since the 1980s though.)
I've never heard of a car with no heater.. Can you post a photo of the climate controls?
Heaters used to be optional of course and cars destined for warm places such as Hawaii or tropical climates overseas frequently would not have them. That was like 50 years ago or more though.
Its the most bare bones Toyota ever! A lot more bare bones than a US spec Yaris, keep that in mind
Not sure how to post an image here, but like Kerem said and showed. My A/C control only has blue lines. I live in tropical country where it's almost summer all year round, so car manufacturers don't put heaters in most cars here.
Pretty common in base model Toyota & Daihatsu products in SE Asia. They still have a heater core though, even though they may not put out any heat.
Despite there being no heater function as such, if there's a heater core in there for the purpose of regulating AC outlet temperature then blend door operation would still be a possible suspect.
I’m not sure if this 1st gen Yaris/Vios even had a blend door actuator. The cabin electronics of this car is from the stone ages. The owner will have to confirm this, but if I’m not wrong, the blend doors are cable operated. I still think it’s a refrigerant issue, in this case.
I know this may blow some minds here, but even brand new base trim Toyota/Daihatsu vehicles are being sold without a heater in some markets. Heck even cabin airflow is just to the face, to the feet & defrost. That’s it. Reminds me of the question about Canadian Toyotas not having cabin insulation. First world problems, I guess..
I was thinking the blend door might be cable-actuated. Even that can fail though if say the clip holding the cable in place comes loose or the attachment point on the blend door breaks. However a refrigerant problem seems most likely in this case.
Agreed.
When you had all the work done did you replace the cabin air filter? If not I would try that because when that gets clogged it can reduce the performance.
This model initially didn't have a cabin filter. However, there is a space in it where one can make a hole to put in a cabin filter, which I had the mechanic done when I had the dash removed for cleaning. So it has a new and fresh cabin filter in it.
what is the temperature outside? A/C isn't supposed to be very cold in the winter
I live in a tropical country. No winter here. Between 9 am to 5 pm the temperature outside is between 100 to a 104 °F.
where is this .... the Sahara?
I think southeast Asia
Kerem is right. I may have exaggerated a bit there. Maybe between 95 -100 °F.
It's not the heat, it's the humidity. In fact, what the A/C really does is dry the air (water is it's main byproduct). So, if it's 95 degrees with 80 percent humidity, well, it's Gulf of Mexico, August miserable. One very much needs a working A/C in those conditions.
Did you measure the blowing air temperature when it is on Max cold?
Unfortunately, I don't have the rigt tool to measure it. However, based on what I feel, the lowest A/C setting pretty much felt the same as the max cold setting.
You do not need a special tool. Stick a thermometer inside the vent.
Is the clutch on the front of the compressor cycling on and off appropriately? Are your electric fans turning on when you run the AC?
Yes, those all work properly.
Well, the other things not mentioned, so far, include load testing the battery and the alternator. If they are weak, then, of course, the A/C will not work well.
I will have the alternator and the battery load tested.
You did a lot of prior work on the vehicle. There's not that much left, but this seemed like one of the obvious suspects.
Most AC shops nowadays use those fancy preprogrammed machines. Not like the old days when techs used gauges and scales to measure the amount of freon they put in. These machines have to be calibrated occasionally. And they also rely on the tech to enter the correct model and information about the car. I would find a place that can put gauges on it and check the psi, it’s possible you didn’t get enough of a charge. Don’t buy one of those recharge kits from auto parts store and just add more. If you overcharge it you can cause damage to your compressor.
