an unsolved air conditioning (A/C, AC) issue

You should check if your inverter pump is working. If it has failed, it would explain the no ac

 

So are you saying this happened? Or not?

In any case, has there been any front end work that require removing the radiator cooling fans? These rotate one, clockwise and the other counter-clockwise and if installed reversed, they try and push air through the radiator instead of sucking the air through. Only at high speed can the cars airflow counter the pushing of the air and provide enough airflow to cool the engine and a/c. Check them and if they are pushing air back through the radiator, change them over so they suck air from the front to back.

If not that, nothing else comes to mind.

 

I would definitely follow up on dolj's suggestion about the front fans ... checking that they are rotating in the correct directions (and also that they are rotating at all). And check that you get both rotation speeds. I don't own a Gen 2, so it's possible I'm wrong about your model, but Gen 1 definitely had the two fans wired to achieve a low speed (by connecting the motors in series) and a high speed (by connecting them in parallel), and your repair manual should lay out what the conditions are that will call for each speed, so you can make sure both are tested. (I could see a shop possibly missing a problem if they see the fans working at one speed, and haven't tested the other.)

The absence of fan-drawn airflow through the condenser is exactly what the symptoms you've described sound like. None of the other stuff suggested makes the remotest shred of sense if those are the symptoms you're having....

-Chap

 

Yes chapman that's how the g2 fans are wired also via a relay. I'm with you one of the fans probably replaced post deer hit are not working properly, when ac on an temp set to LOW. Making it max cool the fans on the rad should both be sucking air through the rad into the engine compartment.
And both fans on full blast.

Or front condenser in front of rad is really full of crud. Take the black plastic cover that's on top of the rad off so you can see the condenser face should look pretty clean bright aluminum, buy 2 cans of coil cleaner from Home Depot and hose them down with that cleaner.

 

Whomever has looked at your car, assuming you provided the information above, should NEVER EVER work on AC again... EVER!

The FACT that the AC works normally at road speeds tells me that the fan or fans are not doing their job when you are stopped. The engine typically shuts down under these conditions, so no need for fans at idle, except for the AC!

Get the car HOT, park it and see if you can visually inspect both fans for running with the AC on. If not, have the fan controls looked at. They are also at least two speed fans, low and high. They should be spinning, but not super fast then switch to faster after a few minutes of being parked with the AC on.

 

While the fans are wired in a two-speed arrangement, I'm not sure it would be obvious in isolation whether one is seeing the low speed or the high speed (unless you were watching/listening when the speed switched). That was why I suggested looking in the manual to see the actual conditions stated for when the fans run at each speed. In Gen 1, for example, any of: the ECM, the A/C amplifier, or the A/C single pressure switch, would be independently able to pull in the relay that switches the fans to high speed. But the details might be different in Gen 2.

-Chap

 

Again in max cool where it says LOW on the temp gauge on the mfd both RAD fans are at max speed on a G2. Pretty straight forward.

Not neccesary to mention isolation whatever the hell that is and the ECM or the ac amplifier or the ac pressure switch and Jesus Christ the manual....

 

"in isolation" isn't any kind of car-specific jargon, it just means what it means in plain English. If somebody showed you some fans running at one speed, and didn't show you the other speed to compare it with, would you be able to tell which speed you were seeing?

I'll provisionally take your word about the conditions that guarantee high speed in a Gen 2 (even though it's not clear that they would in a Gen 1), because I'm not facing an A/C problem in a Gen 2 so to me it's not worth looking up. To someone who is facing an A/C problem in a Gen 2, it might be.

-Chap

 

OP are you noticing your fans going to High speed? You might want to check and make sure your High and Low side refrigerant pressure sensors are operating properly.

 

That was six years ago, not sure the OP is still waiting on advice from us.