A/C System Not Cold Enough, Noisy A/C Compressor (Recharge A/C System With Correct Amount of Refrigerant)

This bulletin is being revised to add a build date for when the condition was corrected on production vehicles. Please discard Corporate Bulletin Number 05-01-38-005 (Section 01 -- HVAC).

Important: The refrigerant charge amount was corrected on vehicles built beginning on December 6, 2004. Vehicles built before this date may have an incorrect refrigerant charge amount.

Some customers may comment on the Air Conditioning (A/C) system not blowing cold air. Others may comment that the windshield does not clear as quickly as expected while in the defrost mode. Technicians may hear a noise in the engine compartment coming from the A/C compressor.

If the Service Engine Soon (SES) light is not on, the root cause of the customer concern may be an overcharge of A/C system refrigerant.

Technicians are to recover, evacuate and then recharge the A/C system with the correct amount of refrigerant using the following procedure:

1. Open the hood and connect a J43600 ACR2000 Air Conditioning Service Center to the vehicle.
2. Start the vehicle and turn on the A/C system.
3. Verify that the A/C compressor is operating and that the Service Engine Soon light is not on. If the A/C system is not operating or the Service Engine Soon light is on, refer to the Diagnostic Starting Point-Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning procedure in SI (Document ID #1224285).
4. Turn off the ignition.
5. Recover, evacuate and then recharge the A/C system. Refer to the Refrigerant System Capacities table in SI (Document ID #1546722) or the underhood charge label for the correct refrigerant charge amount.
6. Start the vehicle and verify proper operation of the A/C system.
7. If the A/C system does not operate properly or is still noisy, refer to the Diagnostic Starting Point-Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning procedure in SI (Document ID #1224285).
8. Disconnect the ACR2000 and close the hood.

For vehicles repaired under warranty, use: