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A/C Mazda 3

12K views 30 replies 10 participants last post by  madmatt2024 
#1 ·
Hello,

The heat has hit hard this past week 90 degrees. , it was time to turn on the A/C on the car. Was running okay, for the first ten minutes, then it started blowing warmer air. In order to get it working I have to turn the A/C off and try like 10-15 minutes later. Then the compressor clutch kicks on and I get cool air again.

I picked up a manifold gauge set, and will attach my findings, the first pic is what I get with the car off. The second is with the car on A/C at max. Third is at 2300 rpm. After around 10 min the Compressor clutch stops = warm air, and my results on the gauges are the same as first picture. The last pic is just on a regular gauge to refill A/C that I had laying around.

Any suggestions! Thanks!
 

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#3 ·
Double up on the relay. Your horn relay and the A/C relay are exactly the same part, and right next to each other in the under-hood fuse block. Just switch them, see if that cures your ills. (You may lose your horn, but who cares? This time of year, A/C is way more important that horn. You'll be fine until a new relay comes in)
 
#4 ·
I don't know much about the pressures. But start with the easy stuff. I had a faulty relay for the A/C but it was intermittent and had results like you are experiencing. They are only a couple of dollars so stick a new one in and see if there is an improvement.

I have given this a try with no luck. I also have another observation that is when the weather is not too hot lets say around 70-75 degrees or at night when temps cool off, blows very cold air. Hmmmm...
 
#5 ·
Compressor is working, clutch is working, and you have some refrigerant in the system.

Sounds like something is telling your clutch to disengage after the first ten minutes of it running. I've had this problem before and it's typically low on refrigerant which means you have/have had a leak in the system at some point. If you can get the car to a shop and have them pull a vacuum on the system, it can be re-filled and will likely get you back in working condition.

However, if you're sure the system is full, the evaporator temperature switch may be going bad on you, telling the a/c/ to shut off prematurely. That switch is a total pain in the ass to get to though FYI.
 
#8 ·
What year is the car?

Sent from my XT1650 using Tapatalk
 
#10 ·
I am having similar problems with a 2008 Mazda 3 2.3L. One problem is the intermittent turning off of the AC when driving, and sometimes when you first start the car.

The other is more obvious. some times, when it has been raining a whole lot, you have to smack the dash REALLY hard in order to get the cabin air fan to run, and it will make a chattering sound when it first starts. i KNOW that one is just a matter of time.
 
#22 ·
Update, so I did not work on anymore on the A/C since it started cooling off where I live, after the cabin air filter change no results for me.

Now that it is warming up again, my whole A/C compressor clutch does not engage. I turn on the A/C button on and it stays on, but the clutch never kicks in.

I did not have my manifold set at hand so I just used the little Low pressure gauge that come with refrigerant and it read way too high in the red area. Which I assume is because the compressor/clutch is not kicking on.

What can I test before I rule out that the Compressor is bad?

I have checked the relay. Swapped it with the horn relay which are the same I believe and no difference. I will get a manifold gauge set to see what both sides are reading now.

Any thoughts?


Thanks!
 
#23 ·
Update, so I did not work on anymore on the A/C since it started cooling off where I live, after the cabin air filter change no results for me.

Now that it is warming up again, my whole A/C compressor clutch does not engage. I turn on the A/C button on and it stays on, but the clutch never kicks in.

I did not have my manifold set at hand so I just used the little Low pressure gauge that come with refrigerant and it read way too high in the red area. Which I assume is because the compressor/clutch is not kicking on.

What can I test before I rule out that the Compressor is bad?

I have checked the relay. Swapped it with the horn relay which are the same I believe and no difference. I will get a manifold gauge set to see what both sides are reading now.

Any thoughts?

Thanks!
Unplug the compressor clutch and check that you are getting power at the connector.
 
#27 ·
I did use a test light and the light came up, when I turned off A/C button it did not light up.

As far as the resistance test it was in Ohms, multimeter was set to 200 Ω position. Moved up to next range up on multimeter for Ohms and all it did was stay at 1
 
#29 ·
Just out of curiosity, does anyone know where I could get a correct AC trinary switch for our cars? The OEM part shows up as "B01A-61-503". But all parts cross referenced with that are the wrong size. They're all too large. Not sure if it's a screw up or if there are multiple models out there with different switches. Pretty sure anyone that's tried to replace this part knows what I'm talking about.
 
#30 ·
If you can't find it online call up some u-pull it junkyards and see if they have your car in stock. Then go and tank a couple out of those vehicles.

Sent from my XT1650 using Tapatalk
 
#31 ·
Another though is that you could always go to the dealer, give them your VIN, and they should be able to get you the correct part. If it ends up being incorrect then they have the capability to contact corporate and get an answer as to why their catalog is wrong and what the correct part number is. We've had to do this before and the dealers usually come through, even on some obscure things.
 
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