I had a recent overhaul done (professional shop) of my SL2s ac system. All systems check out, it has no leaks and has a brand new compressor. But I still feel like it is not cooling as fast as it should and it takes a very long time to get cool(ish). I havent noticed untill today because oddly this is the first time in NC since i fixed it that we have had 90 degree day thanks to some mild weather. Anyways I might be off my rocker but I dont think it is performing as well as my last 2 SLs ac systems. It does help a little if i keep the revs up but I dont remember having to do that in the past. But I wont know unless i check the temps with someone else. So if you have an SL or SC series and believe your ac is doing what it should, would you be kind enough to take a few temp measurements for me? It can be done with a simple electric thermometer.


Here are the temps I am going to take if someone will please do the same. (use center vents with the door closed) exterior temps should probably be a min of 80 degrees to stay consistent

Crank your car cold and place it on maximum settings for cool with recirc on. Now before anyone says it, i know you should run it with recirc off first but this is for measurement purposes to stay consistent.

Take a measurement at a center vent with doors closed at:

2 minutes of running at idle

4-5 minutes of running at idle

and then 10-15 minutes of normal driving.

Thanks a lot in advance. i hope there is someone who will do this so i can know for sure if it is working properly.

And also if someone with ac knowledge knows if there is a list of temps i should be getting at or is it pretty much the same across the board for ac systems. I just dont know. I am the first to admit ac is not my specialty.

 

for what it's worth, I've always found the a/c performance on the 3 s cars I've owned to be sluggish.

Also, when he overhauled it did he convert it to today's standard refrigerant?
Don't know its performance properties
Just wanna make sure we're comparing apples to apples

 

I honestly don't know the answer to that. But if it works better then thats what I want! How can I tell?

He checked out all the components outside the compressor. I knew the compressor was bad because the clutch was physically broken. Everything else was ok. So outside of replacing the compressor i dont think anything else was changed. So It more then likely has whatever kind of freon came in the 1997 factory.

 

My 02 SL has 38 to 40 at the center vents regardless of conditions. It is pretty constant. It reaches this temperature within a few seconds of turning on the ac. That is with outside air in the 90-100+ range and high humidity.

 

KrazyDan--

Keith's system runs the same as my '02L200 ... 40 degrees. I'm in the deep south, along the Mississippi Gulf Coast ...

 

Thanks for the quick replies. Im going to test mine today hopefully so I'll let you guys know what the results are.

 

going down the road it should be around 35-45. Lets hope for 35* 1997 Saturn uses 134A as most modern cars.

 

I checked it out. My temps were abnormally high no matter when I measured it. After driving for a while my temps only got down to 58° in the center vent. I knew something was up! I took it back to the shop and had them check it out. It ended up the freon levels were slightly high. He said it may have been due to the temp/pressures when he originally filled it up. It was significantly cooler out then.

So now it is working properly. After driving steady for a bit (90° outside) I got temps of around 40° and it seemed to still be dropping. Its probably a little off since I'm using a standard stick thermometer. It still seems to take a lil bit of steady driving to get it going but once it does it gets much colder. Thanks for everybody's help!