Matt Bauman
Junior Member
Good afternoon,
I bought my truck almost a year ago now and knew it was going to have some issues going in as its got 200k miles on it, but it was in good working order. I purchased it...last August and didn't end up driving it much that month because of work, and discovered in mid September that the A/C stopped working, or so I thought. It was cool enough at the time I just started rolling the windows down. Fast forward to now, the weather where I live is already hitting 80s, and I've discovered that the A/C works fine, so long as I'm not idling. It works a little too well, it gets freezing. It works upon first start up of the truck, and it works so long as I'm driving and its getting air in it. It even works at stop lights, the issue becomes when you fire it up a second time, or you idle for more than a minute or two. The A/C cuts out entirely, and it just starts blowing warm air. It also produces a really distinct hissing noise which becomes greatly exaggerated when you turn the truck off. I should say that the hissing noise (which sounds very much like a vacuum leak to me) was present during the winter whenever I had the heater running, it just didn't affect anything. The engine likes to wobble a bit while the A/C is running at idle, which isn't super unusual, but it can dip 300 to 400 rpm as the compressor turns on, then it starts hissing, the compressor gets turned off and it continues to blow hot air until I get it up above 15 miles an hour.
The A/C was supposedly properly recharged by the dealer that sold it to me, but who knows. I know it has a charge in it or it wouldn't get cold period, so its not a leak on the actual refrigerant. The hissing sound comes from the passenger side, right around behind the air filter, but I can't feel anything and I can't pin it down. It almost seems like its coming from inside the cab and not the engine compartment.
It doesn't have any running issues other than this and some lifter knocking when its really cold out, but at 200k miles thats normal and has been greatly reduced by putting proper synthetic oil in it. It never overheats, or even comes close to getting even half way on the temp gauge. It runs smoothly in town and on the freeway, and when I need it to, it gets up and goes smoothly and sounds like a satisfying squirrel eating factor that it is. It tows just fine, up to 8000 pounds, and we got a solid 4 ft of snow this winter that it didn't care about in the least bit. EDIT: I say this to point out that for all intents and purposes, it runs and performs great under the stress of towing and plowing through deep snow, just the A/C is an issue.
Edit: I was just looking at it again, and the compressor's clutch is kicking in and cutting it off everytime the A/C cuts out, which I think I described already.
Here are links to videos I took so you can get a better idea.
This one is taken from the interior and is of me shutting the truck off. Sorry about the keys being loud.
This is of the exterior, I set the camera down on top of the air filter housing so you can't see anything but you can hear it really clearly.
I bought my truck almost a year ago now and knew it was going to have some issues going in as its got 200k miles on it, but it was in good working order. I purchased it...last August and didn't end up driving it much that month because of work, and discovered in mid September that the A/C stopped working, or so I thought. It was cool enough at the time I just started rolling the windows down. Fast forward to now, the weather where I live is already hitting 80s, and I've discovered that the A/C works fine, so long as I'm not idling. It works a little too well, it gets freezing. It works upon first start up of the truck, and it works so long as I'm driving and its getting air in it. It even works at stop lights, the issue becomes when you fire it up a second time, or you idle for more than a minute or two. The A/C cuts out entirely, and it just starts blowing warm air. It also produces a really distinct hissing noise which becomes greatly exaggerated when you turn the truck off. I should say that the hissing noise (which sounds very much like a vacuum leak to me) was present during the winter whenever I had the heater running, it just didn't affect anything. The engine likes to wobble a bit while the A/C is running at idle, which isn't super unusual, but it can dip 300 to 400 rpm as the compressor turns on, then it starts hissing, the compressor gets turned off and it continues to blow hot air until I get it up above 15 miles an hour.
The A/C was supposedly properly recharged by the dealer that sold it to me, but who knows. I know it has a charge in it or it wouldn't get cold period, so its not a leak on the actual refrigerant. The hissing sound comes from the passenger side, right around behind the air filter, but I can't feel anything and I can't pin it down. It almost seems like its coming from inside the cab and not the engine compartment.
It doesn't have any running issues other than this and some lifter knocking when its really cold out, but at 200k miles thats normal and has been greatly reduced by putting proper synthetic oil in it. It never overheats, or even comes close to getting even half way on the temp gauge. It runs smoothly in town and on the freeway, and when I need it to, it gets up and goes smoothly and sounds like a satisfying squirrel eating factor that it is. It tows just fine, up to 8000 pounds, and we got a solid 4 ft of snow this winter that it didn't care about in the least bit. EDIT: I say this to point out that for all intents and purposes, it runs and performs great under the stress of towing and plowing through deep snow, just the A/C is an issue.
Edit: I was just looking at it again, and the compressor's clutch is kicking in and cutting it off everytime the A/C cuts out, which I think I described already.
Here are links to videos I took so you can get a better idea.
This one is taken from the interior and is of me shutting the truck off. Sorry about the keys being loud.
This is of the exterior, I set the camera down on top of the air filter housing so you can't see anything but you can hear it really clearly.
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