Broken A/C- PLEASE HELP

If the blower motor is not bad, then you should have a servo problem. But I believe you are describing 2 different issues here. If the air is not cold, that is controlled by 1 servo, and if the air is not coming out at the correct vent (defrost, middle, or foot), that should be another servo.

 

Where does air come out the strongest at the floor at the vents at the defrost I doubt it stuck in the middle position and blowing out evenly through all the vents that would be one thing you want to find out pretty quickly then even with all that said if you've got the air conditioner forget all that setting the temperature nonsense put it on LO or low The lowest it can go your temperature does not come out your vents at what you set on the dial exactly . There's there's no reason to be adding heat in the summer time to make that ice cold air warmer just turn the fan down. So with it set low as cold as it'll go when you turn the system on just sitting there step down on the gas make the engine come on if you want to do you hear the air compressor running? If you get out of the car and go touch the fat silver metal line coming from your air compressor running to the firewall not the skinny one this one's about 5/8 diameter. That should be almost ice cold after a minute of running or even a little less if it's been just charged up by the Toyota dealer and if you look at the little sight glass over there on the left fender wall it should be pretty clear no bubbles but if you've got cold fat line . You're in pretty good shape. Now you're on to the fan distribution problem you say you dealt with the cabin filter so we know it's clean they get dirty real fast so you want to make sure you don't have a bunch of tree crap laying on the filter it will slow the air down drastically. So we know that's out of the way now you're on to the air distribution part of it the damper doors if you will but that shouldn't make a whole lot of difference if you've got cold on the lines and the fan on and you're stuck in between defrost and floor anywhere in between you should have ample air coming out and it should be pretty cold in the car I mean mine will work this way in North Carolina it's in the hundred. If it's the damper door and all that business you'll have to take it apart and mess with it change the damper door motor whatever it takes apparently this is pretty common on the Prius it hasn't happened on any of the five I've owned but apparently it's pretty common but that should not stop the total flow of air in other words the damper door just divides it between defrost main vents blowing directly at you and the floor vents so if you're stuck in between that on high fan it may not be blowing on you out the front vents but it's a certainly becoming on the floor and going up to the defroster any of the three and that should still cool the whole car pretty well some people like those forward vents blowing right on them full blast but is that really necessary what if you just come from a run oh that's different. I mean just normally like driving in your work clothes to work you know business attire whatever you should still be pretty cool in the car even though you have a position problem for the air you still have the same cubic feet a minute of air coming from the fan coming out into the car it's just not concentrated blowing at your face or your chest or whatever it is.

 

That could be part of the problem. You shouldn't be able to see it. If you see turbulance/bubbles, that's usually indicative of a low charge. Not guaranteed, but typical. Often, even with a low charge, the AC will still work halfwat decent, so you do likely have another issue to sort out.

 

And the fat silver tube that has the gray cap marked l on it if it's still there The low side is nice and cold with the air conditioning compressor running you get out and lift the hood that fat silver line is it cold? Like cold enough not for you to hold on to it too long?

 

And let's say the fan was running too slow that won't put enough hot air across the evaporator so the evaporator will start to not necessarily freeze up but get exceptionally cold because there's not enough impeller pushing the air from the fan across the evaporator no matter what vents are open or what dampers aren't working even if the fresh air inlet is open I use my air conditioner mostly with the fresh air set to fresh I just turned the fan up another notch if that's a thing but I never have it above low I don't set it for 76° I don't want any heat coming into the cabin or through the heater core to bring my low 50° air or whatever it is up to 76 the natural sun coming through the windshield and all oughta to do that quick enough

 

For starters, if you're deep in the heart of this epic west coast heat wave, don't jump to conclusions just yet. Also this assumes you've worked through every vent adjustment and are certain the settings change properly. As in if it's not cold, it's more then a vent setting issue.

So if those aren't the issue I'd take it back to the Toyota Dealership and show them your receipt and tell them that a Prius expert told you that they most likely incorrectly refilled refrigerant and lubricant and the amount in the system was not the exact weight that is required in the specs and that they need to confirm that this is the problem they created. This happens way too often! I've known people that are ready to replace the compressor for the 2nd and 3rd time. It's very expensive and it's too often because of a bad servicing job!

As in it's a very involved process to properly take care of a Prius AC system and if they cut corners and did it on the cheap to save time you'd be experiencing the exact type of symptoms that you're currently experiencing. If nothing else it gets your foot in the door on a free or reduced rate on diagnosis and if they don't admit fault/offer a deal on the repair you'll at least know what needs to be done for a much lower price elsewhere.

Basically, to properly re-charge the AC system you need a very expensive piece of equipment that evacuates the system and weighs the amount of refrigerant and lubricant in it and there's lots of way mechanics prefer to save time by doing it a faster and easier way. But it's a variable pressure system and needs to be fine tuned based on not just weight of refrigerant and lubricant, but also by outside temp & humidity, engine compartment temp and inside the car's temp and humidity.

 

With everything said it low and the air conditioner on the temperature of that hose that you're touching outside of the car should be about equal to the air coming out whichever vents are stronger whatever they're split between the floor and the defrost or the main vents in the front and the floor the air of that tube that you touched should be about similar to the air coming out of the vent not volume or any of that we're not there yet we're just trying to see if your air conditioner is working correctly The compressor part of making enough cold. I'm in the 100° heat 78 plus percent humidity usually 90% humidity of North Carolina right now today and if I go out and put my air conditioner on in my '09 and push the gas down and forced the engine to come on for a second just to make sure everything is everything when that air conditioner starts to pump up that fat hose is going to get pretty cold and start sweating pretty quickly and that temperature that that hose is sweating and all that business is the air that's going to be coming out of my dash which is not set to any temperature it's set to all the way down low. When my air conditioning compressor or gas wasn't up to snuff that hose wouldn't get cold enough to sweat water bubbles on the tube not in the sight glass literally on top of the aluminum metal the silver if you're not sweating you're not cold enough pretty much in any auto air conditioner usually that low side line especially getting near the firewall and it should be starting to sweat The vents placement of the air and all that that's by those servos that everyone's talking about and you'll get those adjusted oiled replaced whatever but that shouldn't change your standing air temperature not going down the road even if the fresh mode is opened that's just sucking some air from up near the wiper trim through the filter and out your vents across the evaporator and all that and then out your vents so unless you're moving down the road you don't really feel the little bit warmer air because you're bringing in all that fresh air until you're really moving then people tend to move that to recirculate I just turn the fan up because I like the fresh air but whatever works for you. Sweating I think you need to see or your stuff is not up to snuff in the gas department and if you don't have the equipment to fool with that and you just paid somebody to do that you might want to have him take a look.