Dealer Quotes $1500 to fix THIS?? (Ford Focus No A/C)

hi everyone welcome back to paint hollow out of Diagnostics we're doing a house call today on this 2012 Ford Focus customer complaint is the air conditioning stopped working late last summer and it's still not working it's getting warm she wants the AC fixed okay she said that when she first pushes the AC button it actually blows cold for about 90 seconds and then just shuts off she's taking it to two shops at least I think Pep Boys told her she needs a new AC control unit so whoever she took it to someone else they found a used one because new one's not available plugged it in no difference and she took it to the Ford dealership and let's see what they wrote on their estimate and see if it makes sense all right so here's the summary from the dealership performed AC diagnosis keyword diagnosis found system charged properly scan for codes no code stored okay check AC pressures found the compressor is not building pressure and stays even with the low side recommend compressor and valve estimate now about 1500 bucks hmm if it works great for two minutes and then it completely shuts off could that be a compressor problem it doesn't sound like it to me uh you know maybe the clutch or something clutch control but that should set a code I don't know Let's scan the vehicle for codes so I got the whole report right here open it up we have satellite antenna lost communication with instrument panel cluster okay data received from ECM is invalid PCM has five codes okay we have low pressure fuel system pressure too low engine coolant temperature sensor one circuit high voltage 131 O2 sensor circuit low voltage Bank One Sensor One evap emissions very small leak don't care fan one control circuit okay so ask the customer how long has your check engine light been on because five problems it probably been on for a while she said four years okay but the AC problem started late last summer so which one of these codes could potentially cause the engine computer to shut down the air conditioning system well I bet it's going to be engine coolant temperature sensor one circuit high voltage that's my gut feeling here if the computer doesn't know what temperature your car is at then it's just going to shut everything off let's take a look at live data okay so air conditioning compressor clutch no air it's interesting uh air conditioning pressure sensor is at 100 PSI okay engine coolant temperature status no air look at that temperature reading is going all over the place and before I got the camera out it was reading -40 like open circuit then I started up the car and it's it went to like 130 substituted value so this reading right now I don't like whatsoever now let's see when we start it up and turn the AC on okay I heard that I think I heard the compressor kick on let's see if it gets cold everything's great oh yeah blowing nice and cool let's wait 90 seconds or two minutes or however long see if anything changes so right right now the air conditioning is working fine so I bet if we can get this data pit to act up it'll disable the air conditioning I'm going to shut it off turn the key back on just graph engine coolant temp like why is it doing this see it's kind of stable and drops down that's not normal where is the coolant temp sensor it's right to the see to the left of the exhaust manifold on this coolant Outlet assembly let's go there do a visual inspection and see if we can you know while looking at scan data see if we can get this to glitch or to act up or something all right so intake manifold exhaust manifold the coolant temp sensor you can actually see right through this Gap under the high pressure fuel pump there's the connector there's the wire that goes down to it's right here so let's look at scan data look at that while I wiggle that wire is it drastically jumping around I mean it should be Rock Steady like stable super stable let's try unplugging the sensor see what it reads oh there you go minus 40. boom and in this state I'm sure the air conditioner will not run and the cooling fan is going to stay on as a default to save the car just in case it's overheating [Applause] so as yeah let's try turning on the air conditioner now wait there minus 40. so right now it's open circuit and it says engine coolant temperature status yes air you can hear the cooling fan come on and I don't think this air is going to get very cold so the cooling fan is on if I push the AC button obviously the air conditioner is not gonna I'm sure the compressor is not going to kick on so we're almost done it's either a bad connection or a bad sensor hear the cooling fan run so let's go back to the sensor itself and see just unplug it do a visual inspection all right so there's the connector see if I push it down and up now I don't want to bust anything here the sensor itself is actually I think in this housing kind of with an O-ring so you don't want to stress it too much because then you'll have a cool leak and the customer won't be able to use their car still at minus 40. it says yes error that's pretty crazy let me uh unplug it see what happens all right quick circuit Integrity check is just put a test light across the pins basically shorting that sensor out and it should read high temperature look we have 380 degrees Fahrenheit make it open circuit minus 40. perfect so now I'm going to look at the pins on the sensor we can measure the resistance across those if if it's open if we stress the pins it just needs a new coolant temp sensor all right so the 2012 Ford Focus is in the shop for repairs engine coolant temperature sensor went to the Ford dealer got the OEM Motorcraft unit made in the USA here's what it looks like has a little o-ring on it I just want to measure the resistance here on the bench at room temperature we're at about 35 kilo ohms stable so now let's plug this sensor in to the car harness and see what the scanner reads on on scan data degrees so right now we have yes air in the engine coolant temperature circuit and we're showing open circuit minus 40 degrees Fahrenheit so let me unplug that and plug in the new sensor all right so brand new sensor plug it into the harness 73 degrees Rocksteady beautiful so confirmed we're going after the right part now I just gotta let it cool down a little bit see if we can gently release pressure here without boiling anything okay and I'm going to try to swap it out with minimal coolant loss and uh should be good to go all right so book time on this is about 1.2 hours they want you to drain the coolant blah blah blah well little needle needle nose vice grips grab the little clip pull it out and then you just be quick pull out the old sensor put in the new sensor and here's how much coolant we lost oh nothing in that pan there that's all you lose so let's top off the coolant here's the old sensor you can plug it into the uh the ohm meter there see what it reads I'm sure it's open circuit and take this thing for a test drive with the AC on well proof is into pudding just as expected infinite resistance it's toast all right let's clear out all the dtcs in the vehicle take it on a test drive the Pim says lost communication with instrument panel control module I wonder why clear fault memory okay well don't really care about that PCM cooling fans running and engine temperature is showing above the middle so well let's see what's going on here read fault code no fault codes at the moment so kiosk [Music] read some data stream cooling fans going full blast I mean maybe it's still really hot I don't know it's the engine coolant temp it's interesting our fuel trails are like 25 long term don't know what that's all about fuel rail pressures where it should be just gonna power brake it a little bit look at that long-term trims about 15 percent coolant temp is reading Rock Steady where it should 180 degrees I don't really like this turn on the AC [Applause] all right so far so good we got ice cold air AC pressure sensor is Happy coolant almost 200 degrees it's fine speed 25 percent long-term trims at 25 percent when we're at idle and short term is at seven so I suspect there's a vacuum leak let's see how it does under load here look at that the fuel trims drop right down to zero single digits fuel rail pressure is great all right we'll check for a vacuum link when we get back to the shop look at this now long term is at 26 and short term is minus 13. it's kind of weird fuel rail pressure looks fine let's just take a quick look if we set any trouble codes nope no codes okay let's go back to shop and look at the fuel trims at idle so the mass airflow sensor we're eating 1.6 grams per second and this is a two liter engine long-term trims at 27 percent so that's a problem we definitely have a vacuum leak somewhere maybe it's a PCB hose hey it's a Ford all right so quick check for vacuum leaks couldn't find anything obvious PCV valve is buried down there but um could be anything brake booster evap purge solenoid stuck open whatever it'll be a separate diagnosis if the customer wants me to do that at a later date but air conditioning works coolant temperature sensor was the root cause what would happen if the customer just said okay replace my air conditioning compressor at the dealership not a good scenario it wouldn't have fixed anything um so that's the lesson of the day I guess scan all the modules for codes and see if anything's interrelated thanks a lot for watching we'll see you next time bye well I hope everyone enjoyed the quick diagnosis and Repair on the 2012 Ford Focus with the no air conditioning complaint um yeah that quote from the dealer I don't know is that typical but anyways a couple weeks uh later customers been driving fine air conditioning works great and she asked me can you send me uh you know the summary so I can go back to dealer and ask for my money back now this is exactly what customers should do if they have a car that's misdiagnosed or misquoted and you know they get a resolution um you know that money would be wasted if you don't ask for it back so I'm like well it's kind of a long shot but go for it uh meanwhile before she went back to the dealer her left rear door stopped latching like she couldn't keep it closed it would just fly open like the door locks broke so I'm like um went online on all data and there is a safety recall for this exact issue so apparently these Fords have problems with their door latches again I haven't seen this on any other vehicle but apparently early 2000 whatever 13s to 15s 2012 Focus um right there 12 to 15. basically saying their door latches are defective and they'll replace all four door latches for free I'm like okay well so I forwarded her the the recall PDF now she's well armed she's going to the dealer um and she has texted me said good news the dealer came through fixed all our door latches and refunded her the money for the initial wrong diagnosis for the air conditioning that's awesome uh she was so excited about this the doors are all fixed thank you again uh so much for your prom professional input you have been a godsend and I said uh I'm actually really impressed that you got a refund that's that's a big win and uh she said me too I don't think he was too happy when I asked for a refund last week but they must know and respect you there though because it's like as soon as he saw your name on the paperwork his tone changed and he said oh wow really hopefully they won't ban me like the Honda dealership did next door so um I'm really glad she got her money back now she has a working car she didn't care about the vacuum leak so didn't uh go with the diagnosis there um but at the end of the day it's all about communication and honesty from the customer independent shops dealers everyone is much better off if people are just honest and upfront things go a lot smoothly kudos to the dealership for giving her the refund that's that's what you know should happen and customers super happy so happy ending on that one thanks a lot for watching and we'll see in the next one bye

Channel: Pine Hollow Auto Diagnostics

Views: 151,838

Keywords: Ford, air, condition, engine, coolant, temp, sensor, diagnose, computer, HVAC, dealer, refund

Id: yd7xu09ofBo

Length: 20min 0sec (1200 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 06 2023