2008 Kia Spectra No cooling

[davevw]

I could maybe feel very very slight suction but almost zero noticeable pressure yesterday with my fingers over the ports yesterday. I haven't poured the oil out yet, but the bit that did dribble out looked clean and clear.

The FLAPS couldn't find the part at all in their systems, and neither could the dealer. Dealer said they would just swap a whole compressor. ($900+ from the dealership, too!)

So for $22 it certainly does seem like a good idea to get the part from Rock Auto and give it a try.

[davevw]

Well, the valve arrived today, so I picked up some refrigerant and fresh belts (I noticed they were all pretty worn looking) and put it all together this evening.

And the end result was.....

I'M A HERO!

That is to say, it seemed to fix the problem. Awesome!

Incidentally, I couldn't see anything obviously wrong with the old valve, but perhaps the spring inside wore out or something. I don't know. But it was pumping cold air out again after it was all together.

[Cornbinder89]

Great news, and Thanks for letting us know how it turned out. $25 beats $399 for a new compressor.

[davevw]

Absolutely! I hate looking on forums for help and not finding what the eventual solution was (or if there ever was a solution, I guess).

At some point, I'll be back asking questions related to AC in my old VW Bus, but that will probably be a while. It does have some higher-priority needs first.

[Cornbinder89]

With valves like that, it is almost impossible to test or even see what the problem is. I worked on hyd valve that was similar and we could clean, inspect and really find no problem, put it back in, and it would work for a while than stick again, just turned out to be quicker to replace and toss the old one, rather than try and figure out why it would malfunction. It went against the grain to do it, but it was cost effective.