diavia air con on e320, 93 not playing ball!!

[mario500]

hi guys ,
i think its my first post on this forum and looking at the quality of feedback i reckon someone can help me with this one....
i have a 93 , e320 which i sleep in cos i love it deeply!! lol , but i can't get the aircon working at all. I haven't got a haynes yet , so i figured you smart people would give me the answer - the switch for the aircon is the type with the snowflake symbol on it , the one that according to the manual for the aircon says it must be pressed to activate , ie; red led lit-
chilled air coming out of the vents!! .... not in my car it doesn't.
i move the temp settings to cold , put the fan on full , but nothing.
i know it might just wan't regassing but i feel there might be something else not quite right , for example near the top up point, well!-- above it on the right hand side of the engine bay, are two relays with blade fuses with them.... i think if i am not mistaken that these are for the aircon, anyway the 20 amp fuse in one of them was blown, so i replaced it thinking it would solve the problem but NO!... what i would like to know is if i unscrew the solenoid from its connection point and turn the aircon on should the solenoid armature inside it move outwards? or is it more gradual depending on the load? what tests can i do to dedermine if the solenoid is knackered and what other tests can i do to diagose the problem.... sorry for the essay!! :lol:

thx in advance mario 500

 

[Andy]

Hi Mario

The AC is on when the thumbwheels are turned to cold or blue with the EC light OFF. EC means Economy. So with the light on the AC is switched OFF. You need to check the pressures in the system. If after flowing the previous instructions does bring the ac on. You could try putting a feed straight to the compressor & check if it starts to go cold. But really you need to check the pressures in the system.


Suggest you take to an AC specialist or your local Independant MB specialist if they carry out AC repairs.


Regards

Andy @ www.mercedesservicing.com

 

[mario500]

thanks andy,

i am familiar with the type of controls that you describe, but the air con in my car is different for some reason. ie the button to acctivate the system doesn't have ec on it or anything , it just has a snow flake symbol and it needs to be pressed so the led comes on to power up the aircon.
the rest of the system i am not so familliar with but i am a plumber /heating engineer by trade, so i have a will to beat it and get it working .lol
i will probably take your advice though and get it regassed , i just have an incling that there may be something else that needs attention , like maybe the solenoid or relay ?? i would like to test these before i give in and take it in.

thanks for answering so quickly andy.

 

[mario500]

.... :lol: .... it was just the gas after all!! lol ... i took it to a jaguar specialist local to me who does aircon on most luxury motors and he said the fuse was gone cos the pump run itself dry - so he sorted it for me in 2 hours and only charged me £60. .. hope this will help others out there anyway.

 

[BadTasteUK]

I also have diavia aircon, and whilst stuck in traffic the other day, I decided to hit the recycle button, and it didn't light up.

I then tried all three button, but none of them lit up. It wasn't very warm out so I couldn't tell if the aircon was on or not.

Next time I started it, and since, all three button have worked fine. :?

Does this system trip out and reset itself, or do I have a more serious fault? :roll:

I don't really want to take it to an aircon specialist if I don't have to, they'll probably try and talk me into replacing the lot!