A/C blowing hot air?

[PBST]

Hey all,
while sitting in traffic Thursday, the A/C was just blowing warm air, not cooling down the interior at all.
I had felt like the AC had been working a couple of days prior, but it wasn't really hot enough out then to truly "need" AC.

Thursday was much hotter out, and even turning on "MAX AC" just made the warm air blow harder (MAX AC setting cranks up the fan as well as sets the temp to LO).

It wasn't until I got the RPMs up past 3000 on the highway that I started getting some cold air, but it still wasn't great.
Then just before I got home I let it wind up to 5K, and the AC started blowing ice cold like I'd expect it to.

Anyone else have this issue?
I'm guessing maybe the refrigerant level is low,
If it is low, then I'd also guess that it was delivered like that (since there's only 452 miles on it).

 

[newfiestaowner]

jeez man, your car should blow cold at an idle even, mine has 2300 miles on it now and the ac was cold from day one.

I would go buy advanced auto and pick up a kit, and just measure it with the gauge and keep the refrigerant and gauge for later use and take it into ford knowing if the ac is low or not, that way they can't bs you. maybe the heater core it sticking?

 

[Natedogg]

I wouldn't just throw more charge in it and call it good without first knowing that it's a charge issue. You can do more damage by doing that if the system is already fully charged. Then if you take it to the dealer and they find it's over charged, they will know you tampered with it.

Since you only have 452 miles on it, just take it to the dealer and let Ford pay for it. My money would be on the compressor as it sounds like a variable displacement issue.

 

[PBST]

Thanks for the advice guys,
Mileage is up to 1599 now and it seems like the AC issue worked itself out.
It hasn't been constantly hot out here so I've only needed the AC sporatically,
Last couple times I needed it it seemed to work without taching the engine up like the before.
I have yet to have a hot day where I'm idling in traffic again to give it the true test, but it has defiantly improved.

I wouldn't top off the refrigerant myself even if it ends up having a low charge,
but since I don't have an enormous amount of faith in the dealer either I figured the best choice was to wait and see if it improved or got worse.

 

[newfiestaowner]

try to unroll your windows and let your car warm up a bit before you put the ac on, this will increase the life of the engine over all the times we start it up, am, after work, errands ect.

I always let her warm up before I boost and use the ac.