Ac clutch no longer engaging.

[Michaelolson88]

1999 4.0 xlt
Hello all,

I’m doing some troubleshooting as to why my ac doesn’t want to work this year and was hoping to get some pointers.
So to start off my ac stopped working last year and ended up discovering I was low on Freon as I must have a small leak. I used about half a can of r134a which fixed my ac for the 3 months of summer that was left

switch to this year and my ac is no longer working. I assumed it was due to a leak but when I attach my pressure gauge to the low pressure valve it is showing my in the green. However my clutch is also not engaging on its own. All fuses and relays are good after checking and the only way I could get the clutch to engage is to bypass the low pressure switch with a paper clip but I am still not getting cool air and once then my pressure gauge is saying that the pressure is low instead of in the green as it did previous to bypass. I guess my question is, should I try and replacing the the low pressure switch with the assumption that it has gone faulty or try and get another can of Freon? Also when I try to bypass the high pressure switch the clutch does not engage.
any help would be greatly appreciated.
cheers!

 

[rubydist]

It sounds like it is low on refrigerant again. Put more in and I expect it will work again.

Leaks do not go away on their own - if it was leaking last summer, it is still leaking. The right thing to do is put some dye in the system and find out where it is leaking and then fix the issue.

 

[Michaelolson88]

That’s kind of what I was leading towards. I would have already picked up a can and tried loading up again but I live near Seattle so I don’t have easy access.