A/C cooling
- Thread starter Corolladude
- Start date
My 2011 Corolla seemed to be doing this for well over a year. Would sometimes start blowing cold again mid-ride making me think the compressor just needed a bump... kind of like the blower fan under the dash in my brother's Chevy Volt..? he frequently has to take off his shoe and flail around under the passenger side of the dashboard to get it blowing. 
A few days ago, however, I noticed it was blowing cold but it stopped after I got where I was going and idled for several minutes. I let it idle longer to figure out what was going on and the engine started to stumble. I turned the car off and got prepared to check the fluids, which took several minutes, but the car would not stay on when I got back. Turns out, I was over-heating. I don't think that has always been the case since I began having intermittent air conditioning, but... maybe. Last summer I had battery issues last year and would frequently idle longer so I think I would have noticed.
Anyway, the radiator cooling fan wasn't even coming on until I gave it a push. Even then it was turning so slowly that I couldn't even hear it over the engine noise. Obviously, it wasn't doing a very good job cooling the radiator and I still couldn't get cold air conditioning until I drove fast enough for significant wind cooling on the radiator. No doubt, the wind from higher speeds would turn the fan and get it moving, however slowly, so that the AC will turn on. Seems odd that the car can disable the AC without throwing up an error on your dash or something. At the very least it should keep the AC light from coming on when I try to use it so I know somethng's up. It seems Toyota didn't want the cooling computer connected to the main computer so it just isn't smart enough to do all that.
Anyway, I see videos implying that bad motors are a common problem for the radiator fan so I'm not sure how I feel about going OEM Toyota or junkyard on this. Also, it comes as part of a big radiator shroud and it looks like you have to remove the m radiator to replace it. Doh! If I have to do all that then the least they could do is sell me just the motor.
Hopefully this will give you a few leads. Good luck!
A few days ago, however, I noticed it was blowing cold but it stopped after I got where I was going and idled for several minutes. I let it idle longer to figure out what was going on and the engine started to stumble. I turned the car off and got prepared to check the fluids, which took several minutes, but the car would not stay on when I got back. Turns out, I was over-heating. I don't think that has always been the case since I began having intermittent air conditioning, but... maybe. Last summer I had battery issues last year and would frequently idle longer so I think I would have noticed.
Anyway, the radiator cooling fan wasn't even coming on until I gave it a push. Even then it was turning so slowly that I couldn't even hear it over the engine noise. Obviously, it wasn't doing a very good job cooling the radiator and I still couldn't get cold air conditioning until I drove fast enough for significant wind cooling on the radiator. No doubt, the wind from higher speeds would turn the fan and get it moving, however slowly, so that the AC will turn on. Seems odd that the car can disable the AC without throwing up an error on your dash or something. At the very least it should keep the AC light from coming on when I try to use it so I know somethng's up. It seems Toyota didn't want the cooling computer connected to the main computer so it just isn't smart enough to do all that.
Anyway, I see videos implying that bad motors are a common problem for the radiator fan so I'm not sure how I feel about going OEM Toyota or junkyard on this. Also, it comes as part of a big radiator shroud and it looks like you have to remove the m radiator to replace it. Doh! If I have to do all that then the least they could do is sell me just the motor.
Hopefully this will give you a few leads. Good luck!