2010 ford escape, crank it and turn the ac on high and sometimea a mist comes out of the vents for a few secs.Leave it on high and it could freeze a whole Mammoth in a few minutes, turn the fan down and it's not so cool. Running 75/80 to/from the beach it was ok, but for about 5 seconds hot air came out and then went right back to cold w no touching the controls.What could be the problem?
If it went instant full heater hot and back cold instant that sounds like a blend door actuator. Compressor kicking off for whatever reason will be a gradual warm up then cool down over 30 to 45 seconds or so and will only warm up to ambient temperature, like 90 vs 140 or 150 degrees from engine heat.
As far as the mist on start up I have nothing off top of my head.
Stick a vent thermometer in a center vent and watch temps. A great AC should run 45 to 50 on a 95 or so typical NC summer afternoon. A decent ac will still be doing 55 degrees. 60 will feel like a sauna for the first 20 or 30 minutes lol. That's on high max cold and recirculate. Vent temp should actually run 5 degrees colder or so on low speed fan because it spends more time exposed to the evap core but the car won't be as cool because less air volume and high sun heat loads.
Basically instant temp changes are usually door actuators. A compressor cutting out due to air gap, pcm request, bad relay, etc will be gradual as the core slowly warms up to ambient.
My 16 f250 has a temp actuator going bad. It usually blows 45 degree air max high, 40 on low speed. Randomly, sometimes from initial startup, sometimes just driving, I'll feel the air get warm. Thermometer shows 55 degree air then. The actuator has a position sensor that glitches and it forgets where it is supposed to be, so mine basically cracks the door as if I turned the temp knob 5 or 6 clicks. Key off and wait a few minutes and it'll work fine. I bought a new actuator but haven't put it in yet, Mitchell says my dash has to come out, but it's working fine since I bought the replacement, go figure.
Had a condenser fan start going shitty in my last Ram...that was causing most of my AC issues (except for the leak). Don't know if your AC condenser has it's own fan, but that one did. When the fan stopped blowing, the AC would run warm until I was running down the road.
Had a condenser fan start going shitty in my last Ram...that was causing most of my AC issues (except for the leak). Don't know if your AC condenser has it's own fan, but that one did. When the fan stopped blowing, the AC would run warm until I was running down the road.
there are 2 lectric fans behind the radiator and they come on after I started it and turned on the AC after we got home from the beach. A few days before we went to the beach I noticed that the condenser was wet as I walked past it after work and the car that had been parked for hours.I thought it was because of a thunderstorm, it rained hard that afternoon.Their was some damage, to the grill and condenser a few years ago when someone apparently backed into the ford in a parking lot and it was bent at the bottom. I'm thinking it might have a leak now.
