Hello all, I was pressure washing the accumulation of road salt from this past winter from my engine compartment, and now my AC will not work. but It was working prior to the pressure washing . I took care in not having the nozzle to close to anything, and my pressure washer is not high powered (not commercial grade more big box store grade). has anyone run into this before and have any suggestions. My first check will be fuses then compressor wire harness as soon as I get home.
Aside from being clean, I've never heard of any other benefit to pressure washing an engine. Also I've heard it's best to leave the engine running while doing so. My guess is you fried something. Saturating something that's not meant to be wet is never good, especially electronics/electronic connections.
Check ALL the fuses under the hood and is the drivers foot well. The owners manual will tell you the AC and fan fuses but use a test light and test them ALL. You may have blow another fuse that is related to the AC. A test light like the one below will only run you $10- $15 bucks and will save a lot of time. Turn key on, Clamp to ground and touch each end of each fuse while they are in the fuse block. They all should light up every time you touch one. If they only light from one side you found a blown fuse. Also just because you find one keep checking the rest. :ihih:
Thanks Dave.O, I checked all fuses and they were all good. I also noticed that my 1st stage fan does not come on too. (fan capacitor?)
Even with your fan only running on high you should still have AC. Could you have holed the condenser with your pressure washer? Even the home units pack a lot of pressure.
Yes I did, I also swapped the relays around just in case. Thoughts on manually triggering the clutch thru the relay block to see if the ac clutch is bad? I can solder up a toggle switch and do a jumper thru the relay block.
There is a single wire going in to you compressor that activates the clutch. Up plug it and put a test light on it to see if it is getting power when you switch on the AC. If so you may have a bad clutch well a bad electromagnet that activates the clutch. Mine went bad and I was told I needed a new compressor but you can just replace the magnet. Thats what I did and it has been fine for years. Also there is a chance you just got something too wet. Let it dry out and see if it starts working.
Also, there is a AC pressure sensor on the ac refrigerant line between compressor and firewall. Check to ensure it didn't get unplugged, or get water in the connection.