scumfrog

I had a freind of mine at work who owns a 2007 King Ranch Crew cab check his A/C temps. The best his would get is 48 -50 degrees out of the vents at the max settings. I believe Ford knows they have a worthless A/C system in these trucks but won't admit it. The temp should get down to 40 degrees but I have yet to find someone who owns one tell me it will get that low in their truck. I can drive my wife's 2001 Sable for 10 minutes and the temp out of the vents is down to 40 degrees. How about a test, can everyone on this board who owns a 2007 f150 measure your vent temp this week and post the results? Set it on 60 degrees, recirculate, and then drive for 10 -15 minutes and see what your temp has gotten down to. I am beginning to wonder if Ford does not have a large enough compressor or condenser in these trucks. I did take the truck to an independent A/C mechanic and all he found was that there was too mcuh freon in the system and he said that this would affect performance. Also I put an expansion valve in and none of this did anything to help. My temps are at best 48 degrees from the vents. This cost me $183 for a trcuk that is not even one year old and under warranty. As I mentioned before, two Ford dealers just say there is nothing wrong. I know there is but the consumer continues to get screwed. Also, how do you install one of these e-fans that people talk about? I cannot believe that I am having to go thru all of this on a brand new truck that is under warranty. I hope Ford has a lot of trucks to eat this next year.

Ty

um...quit being a wuss and live with the 8 degree difference?

I know its not nice to say, but is all of the money that you spend on the ac system actually going to make you that much comfortable?

scumfrog

Yes, it will Ty. I have to run it on high fan and 60 degrees just to stay somewhat comfortable. That is a lot of extra gas to burn. As a customer, I do not prefer to pay for something that is not working right. These trucks are too expensive to do that. If we all just accept what Ford wants to provide then we will never force them to correct a problem.

transmaster

I would suggest you find out the who made the compressor and look up the technical details of it's performance. The data sheets will tell what the output should be.

I know one thing the condenser on my truck sure seems puny compared with what I had on my old Cadillacs.

dewman

I have a 1996 F150. I do not know what the temp out of the vents is, but when I run the A/C, it gets cold enough that I can turn the setting to normal and low fan.

transmaster

I have just learned something that may have a bearing on you A/C problem. There are several
different orifice tubes for a Ford A/C, each has a different color. blue, red, orange, brown, and
green. As I understand it two colors are used in the Ford trucks Red and a Blue. If I understand
what I am reading the blue color tube is the standard part, Red being used for severe service. What
I do know is the amount of cooling you get depends on which orifice tube you have installed, it
goes without saying if you have the wrong tube installed your A/C system will be compromised. This
could explain why truck "A" cools better then truck "B". So the dealers can tell you the system is
working normally and the people you are talking too don't know or don't care to clue you in
on the different Orifice sizes and their affects on the cooling abilities of your system.

By the way my comment of the condenser being puny compared to the ones on 60's Cadillacs is not really fair. Yes the old condensers stretch over the entire front of the radiator but with modern materials and the way the condensers are built the cooling density of the modern condensers are just as good if not better then the old ones. I was looking at my trucks condenser and I see it would be cheap and easy to add a fan to it which would really improve it performance when tooling around town.

Installing an electric fan is a plus, plus all around you regain the HP needed to drive the fan, plus the fact the amount of air flowing throught the system is independent of engine RPM which is real useful in stop and go traffic. I will say it yet again add a electric water pump to an electric fan setup and you have THE premo cooling setup. This independence of engine speed also vastly improves the workings of the A/C system. Some of these electric fans have a feature that ties them into A/C system so the RPM of the fan is increased when the A/C is operating to keep things working well.

scumfrog

Thanks Transmaster your input has been very very helpful. I think I will put in one of those electric fans. I did ask the independent mechanic and he said there is plenty of room to put one in. I mentioned above that the vairable orifice valve(smart VOV valve) he put in did not help much but I may have been a little premature in stating that. This weekend the temp was down to 45. So this independent mechanic has helped me the most. He put in the red tube. I think to make it work best I will take your advice and put in the e-fan.

racinjason68

Well I dont think the fan speed increases when the A/C is on, but it runs constantly. When the ac is not on the fan cycles to maintain the proper engine temp. I have my fans on my old explorer and ran 1-18" fan behind the radiator on a Temp sensor and wired to the battery. This was so it could run any time the temp was to high. Yes it kicked on for a min or two after I would shut the truck off, but the way I seen it, helped keep the motor and oil from cooking. I also had 1-12" fan in front of the condenser, and it was wired to a relay off the battery, the "trip" wire was wired to the ac clutch. So anytime the ac was on the 12" would run, and if the motor temp was high enough the 18" would run.

I did notice that the motor seemed to "spool" up quicker, and that cooling was increased a fair amount in stop and go traffic.

I agree that the ac in the truck needs improved, the Dodge v6 I drive daily has its own condenser area off to the side and its own fan. AC is cold in it. Ford should learn from this. The new freons they use are ok when setup properly.


I also noticed the other day when I started my truck and switched to max ac that when in park and rev'n the motor a bit to move air across the condenser that the ac clutch kept kicking out...... Makes no since. Hot as hell in the truck and outside temp was 92. find it hard that 1200-1400rpm was building to much head pressure that quick.

Sorry for the ramble....

transmaster

Here is a E-Fan brand which has the A/C tie in, This Flex-a-lite Fan is for full sized Ford trucks.
It depends on the brand there are some with have their own tempurature controllers and they have a variable fan speed feature where the fan only runs at the rpm needed for the conditions at hand.

http://www.flex-a-lite.com/auto/html/ford-truck.html

racinjason68

I stand corrected. Thanks. nice setup and the hp gain is nice too. Should help alot on the ac part I would think. wonder how the alt will like a stereo, fans running and the normal draw from the truck.