Dodge Durango Forum II Archive

Re: 2000 RT Air Condition (and 2001 SLT+ A/C)

Only two trips? I'm now on my fifth trip for the A/C. I have a 2001 Black w/black leather, and not having the A/C on long trips through the high deserts of southern Washington and Oregon isn't fun.

Trip #1: First, they said I was 1/2 pound under, because of the rear a/c. So, they flushed the system and refilled it.

Trip #2: Compressor died (internal clutch on it). Replaced the compressor.

Trip #3: Overpressure valves kept opening up every time I sped up. Something about when the clutch failed it shoved debrit into the lines. So, the flushed everything, and cleaned it up a bunch. Should be OK.

Trip #4: Still not working. Blows out ~70 degree air when it's 90 degrees out. Just roll down the windows. :-) This trip they replaced everything under the hood they could (literally!). First I was a pound under pressure, so they refilled. Next morning they test drove it, and tested it again. Once again another pound under where they filled it. So, they put in some die into the system, and ran a black-light test. There were bad O rings on something, I didn't catch what part. Replaced those, and it still doesn't work right. They put a call into the Dodge Engineering to try getting some help. The answer, it's STILL not working and nobody knows why. Nearly everything except the expansion valves have been replaced.

Trip #5: That's on Wednesday. They have to replace the expansion valve on it. The rear one seems to be doing OK they said, while the front one is not blowing out at the right temp. So, we'll see how that goes. The compressor is starting to make sounds again, simular to what it started doing a month before it died. (And when it died, it was a very annoying sound).

Sat Sep 1