1999audiA8

No cloggs no leaves. This is a clean California car...

PaulW

The system is obviously set up to run under very little or no load indefinitely. Usually this entails having a bypass line around the compressor that opens during no or low load, but I have NO idea if this is like this on our systems.

His problem is an air flow problem, he even states that the small amount of air that is coming out is very cold, but never said it was hot because it iced up.

I was wrong in saying that his system had little to no load on it, that's why things are icing up, but the damper is the reason why the cabin isn't getting cooling.

ttuling

what led me off that trail is that it took 30 to 40 minutes to happen, then worked again after 15 minutes of disuse. Also, there was frost (which I took to mean frozen water) on the lines and accumulator between the evaporator and compressor under the hood. I figured if those have ice on them, so might the evaporator.

With ice covering most of the evaporator over which incoming air passes, I'd expect the remaining incoming air to be cold not hot. I used to have a car with compressor cycling controlled by a user-adjustable thermostat. Leaving the thermostat too long at the coldest, temporary-use end of the range would allow ice on the evaporator to choke off cabin airflow after a while. But the air always stayed cold.

If the system is actually making ice, JimR said that low charge can cause it. I don't understand enough about AC to see specifically how, but can easily believe that icing over should never happen and indicates a refrigerant circuit problem.

Tom