Cars with busted ac

[Chris142]

The kid that rides to work with me has started a game of counting cars with the windows down. We are assuming those cars have non working ac as its been 103-110 every day for the last few weeks.

Today he counted 40 in our 6 mile drive home today. Top of the list are pt cruiser's. Followed by Chrysler mini vans. 3rd place goes to any mini van be it a Windstar, sedonna etc.

And finally Chevy suburbans.

 

[skyactiv]

I once noticed driving to my parents on a very hot day, every vehicle had the windows rolled up old or new while I was in NW Ohio. That isn't the case in SE Ohio.
What does an electric bill cost right now in California?

 

[cpayne5]

Originally Posted By: Chris142
The kid that rides to work with me has started a game of counting cars with the windows down. We are assuming those cars have non working ac as its been 103-110 every day for the last few weeks.

Today he counted 40 in our 6 mile drive home today. Top of the list are pt cruiser's. Followed by Chrysler mini vans. 3rd place goes to any mini van be it a Windstar, sedonna etc.

And finally Chevy suburbans.


About this time last year, I PM'd you for some A/C advice about our Suburban. We were in Florida, on vacation, in the middle of July and one of the rear A/C lines sprung a leak.

We were riding around with our windows down, until I found a shop that could get me fixed up. Whenever we'd see another car with their windows down, my little boy would yell from the backseat, "no air conditioning!". Fun times.

 

[Kestas]

When I was younger, I purposely ordered a car without a/c. I figured it would conk out early in its life and be expensive to fix, so why bother having it? At least enjoy the room under the hood.

Now I have the tools for proper a/c repair.

 

[spackard]

Yeah, I'm pretty sure people mumble 'working A/C' when they question why I still have my '92 Vigor.
I see a lot of those windows down cars too. About half are aggressively changing lanes in slow traffic, probably to keep wind flow up.

 

[mk378]

If a PT Cruiser can still move by itself, I count that as winning.

 

[PandaBear]

Originally Posted By: skyactiv
I once noticed driving to my parents on a very hot day, every vehicle had the windows rolled up old or new while I was in NW Ohio. That isn't the case in SE Ohio.
What does an electric bill cost right now in California?


Multiple tiers. Starting from 20c/kwh to about 80c/kwh if I remember right. I never go above tier 3 and that's 60c/kwh if I remember right.

Worst I had was about $200/mo when AC on in hot summer, in about 1500 sqft 2/F house. 3 ton AC with 12 SEER if I remember right.
Best in the spring time about $50/mo no AC or heater.
Electric dryer for a family of 4, NG water heater, range, and furnace, 24 year old fridge.

 

[Shannow]

Yeah, see that with Holden Commodores around here, and I really agree with your sentiment.

To get a regas on a flat system around here, they quote $600, as they "must" do $500 of diagnostics....that's why I switched to HC.

 

[Chris142]

I once noticed driving to my parents on a very hot day, every vehicle had the windows rolled up old or new while I was in NW Ohio. That isn't the case in SE Ohio.
What does an electric bill cost right now in California? [/quotey ] my house is all electric except for the stove. My bill was $268 this month which includes 3 weeks of my whining mother in law.

My water comes from a well with a submersible pump 290ft down

 

[pbm]

When I lived in the inner city of NYC as a kid...we didn't have a car....my dad would sometimes rent one for vacations (to the Catskills or once to Cape Cod)....other times one of his buddies would lend him a car….when we moved to the outer boro of the Bronx in 1972...to our own private (attached) house...my dad bought a new 1972 Plymouth Satellite....it looked like an unmarked NYPD car....it had AC but we never used it...when we finally put it on in about 1976...it wasn't working....probably leaked the Freon from dried out hoses.

Now I couldn't live without AC...

PS: We didn't have AC in our 3rd floor walkup apt. in Manhattan either....I can remember my father sleeping out on the fire escape a couple of times to beat the heat....we always had fans though....

 

[jhellwig]

Originally Posted By: Chris142
The kid that rides to work with me has started a game of counting cars with the windows down. We are assuming those cars have non working ac as its been 103-110 every day for the last few weeks.

Today he counted 40 in our 6 mile drive home today. Top of the list are pt cruiser's. Followed by Chrysler mini vans. 3rd place goes to any mini van be it a Windstar, sedonna etc.

And finally Chevy suburbans.


Suburbans rear ac lines suck. I had both rear lines on mine replaced a few years ago and they blew out over the winter. There is a reason the sell plugs for the rear line ports even up to the current models.

 

[The motor guy]

Well they're expensive to fix and when it comes to paying the rent or having ac, having the rent paid sounds a good bit more appealing to most people. I just spent $2500 on my ac. I told the shop fine, but the [censored] better work after this. lol

 

[cpayne5]

Originally Posted By: jhellwig
Originally Posted By: Chris142
The kid that rides to work with me has started a game of counting cars with the windows down. We are assuming those cars have non working ac as its been 103-110 every day for the last few weeks.

Today he counted 40 in our 6 mile drive home today. Top of the list are pt cruiser's. Followed by Chrysler mini vans. 3rd place goes to any mini van be it a Windstar, sedonna etc.

And finally Chevy suburbans.


Suburbans rear ac lines suck. I had both rear lines on mine replaced a few years ago and they blew out over the winter. There is a reason the sell plugs for the rear line ports even up to the current models.


Did you replace them with hardlines?

I was going to use a soft set from these guys...https://www.autocoolingsolutions.com/ac-lines

In the end, we ended up selling the Suburban.

My fix last summer was a blockoff kit from that same company. It got us some cold air for the ride home.

 

[Shannow]

Originally Posted By: pbm
PS: We didn't have AC in our 3rd floor walkup apt. in Manhattan either....I can remember my father sleeping out on the fire escape a couple of times to beat the heat....we always had fans though....


I was going to say that I've never lived in a house with AC, but we DID in one house have a wall mounted window mount...that was 38 years ago.

I can live without home A/C...not without car A/C.

As to your Dad sleeping in the fire escape, I understand that it used to be common for New Yorkers to sleep in central park when it was hot, en masse...I've seen photos of Melbourne (Oz) people sleeping on the beaches during heatwaves in the 40s and 50s

 

[aquariuscsm]

I'm probably one of the few oddballs who never runs the ac or heater,and always has the windows down/tops off

 

[spasm3]

I got rid of my 93 olds ciera this past dec. The compressor and the clutch pully was shot i changed belts to bypass it. I drove it to work and back for about 4 years with out air conditioning. Saved a lot of miles off my other cars. Got used to driving in 95 f heat. Sitting stuck in traffic sucked though, that got hot.

I do use the a/c in the elantra now. But its not the same. The ciera was way faster and the seats were wayyy more comfy. Kind of wish i kept it.

 

[JHZR2]

In hot weather, I sometimes like to roll down the windows when starting up the car. I'd assume that some of the cars with open windows are trying to combat the temperatures inside due to greenhouse effect.

A trend in make/model probably does imply something though...

Vehicles with dual AC will naturally have twice the risk of failure.

 

[Gasbuggy]

I bought a suburban cheap that had broken AC. The Schrader valve was loose. LOL.

 

[Tomioka]

After having a 1990 Toyota 4Runner with a busted A/C for most of it's life I can't imagine not having A/C. It just stopped working and I ignored it for 20+ years. Then I found out the A/C lines route under the battery and a leaky battery just ate those lines up.

 

[Nick1994]

I couldn't live without A/C. I hate the heat.

All of my cars have excellent A/C.