Air Conditioning Gurus - please help (1 Viewer)

[1303]

I have a '96 FZJ80 with front/rear a/c and a fridge console.

A few months back, my alternator went bad and voltage dropped and caused the a/c to slip. The slipping in turn caused the temp to elevate and eventually blew the seal of the clutch bearing and binded it. I believe this is what happened at least.

This then destroyed the compressor nose and I ended up having to replace my compressor with a new one.

When the new compressor was installed, the low pressure side was checked and appeared very high, up to 55-60PSI IIRC.

The a/c guy then reckoned it was a clogged expansion valve. In the end, he replaced the front TXV (the one at the firewall) and the one for the fridge. The ones he replaced with are not genuine Toyota parts but aftermarket's. He flushed the lines and then charged up the system again.

After the replacement, the fridge has the been not cold enough to make ice cubes (it was capable of making ice cubes before all this happened).

My question is: Could it be the TXV he used for the fridge is not of correct parameters (superheat and such) that caused the fridge to not operating in the proper temp range to make ice cubes. If not, what other possibilities could that be?

 

[canman]

I wouldn't call myself a guru, but I did spend over a decade designing mobile HVAC systems, but it also been over a decade since I have done so. Also, I am not at all familiar with how the center console fridge/freezer is designed or functions, but you are correct in the sense that the TXV's only job is to maintain a predetermined amount of superheat as the refrigerant exits the evaporator. There are no other parameters that the TXV controls. It could be that the TXV is defective or the incorrect one if the fridge is supposed to act as a freezer as well. If the rest of the a/c system is functioning properly, then your problem has to be associated with either insufficient refrigerant flow, insufficient airflow, broken thermostat or related electrical control issue.

 

[nukegoat]

Alternator wouldn't affect the ac compressor, but I don't know enough to prescribe a fix