Air conditioner blows warm when stopped

The fans don't reverse themselves. They are either right as they came from the factory or someone did work on the front of the car and got them mixed up.

Are you having all the same symptoms as Drive2much?
o AC cools well on first trip of the day.
o As car warms up, AC is less effective.
o When car is standing at a light or whatever, AC is at its worst.

If your answer is yes to all of the above, I can't help you. The reversed fan idea seemed to be a possibility worth exploring.

However, my advice about finding a reputable Auto AC shop still stands.

 

Those symptoms could make sense with a stuck expansion valve. As the day wears on and temperature goes up, overall coolant pressure rises. In the morning it is low enough to work ok, but once the heat settles in, the pressure no longer drops enough across the valve to do much cooling. $950 sounds outrageous to replace it though.

 

Did you try to lower the cooling tem inside the car ?

Because the might be ice in somewhere in your ac system wihch can affect your ac and that maype increasing as you slow down or stopping when the gas engin turn off and there will be no heat to milt the ice !!

I hope that might help

 

From manual:

Condition:​

Periodically cools and then fails to cool.

Symptoms Probable Cause Diagnosis Corrective Actions
During operation, pressure on
low-pressure side cycles between
normal and vacuum
Moisture in refrigerating system
freezes at expansion valve orifice,
causing a temporary stop of
cycle. However, when it melts,
normal state is restored.
- Cooler dryer in oversaturated
state​

Moral of story:
Go to AC shop that can handle hybrids (non hybrid oil will damage your system)
Evacuate, system, replace receiver drier, pump down and refill with dry freon.
Moisture in refrigeration system
freezes at expansion valve orifice
and blocks circulation of
refrigerant
1. Replace receiver dryer
2. Remove moisture in system by
repeatedly evacuating air
3. Supply proper amount of new​

refrigerant

 

Coolant and oil must be replaced when the compressor is replaced. The wrong oil would damage or destroy the compressor.

 

If the wrong oil was used, the AC would not work at all once the compressor fails. The oil causes the motor windings to short out.

 

One thing you may want to check is if the AC condenser has a lot of dirt in the fins. I doubt thats your problem, but its an easy enough thing to check.

 

Here is a theory: Inverter Coolant Pump

Today I got the triangle of death on the dash, which is the Hybrid warning sign. I just left the dealer right now with it being replaced via recall. This is what happens when the inverter pump is dead: AC will blow warm even when you put it on 65F. I don't know the exact relationship with the inverter pump and AC. They must work together somehow because the AC is now FREAKING COLD. I live in Los Angeles and it was 102F on the drive back home. AC was set on 78 and on the second setting. I know the stealership didn't give a complimentary AC charge. Also, I noticed that the AC was blowing on the weak side a few weeks ago. Maybe the inverter pump was not running at optimum level and consequently lowering the AC temperature. My car is an 05 with 186k. I hope that gives you some clue.
Good luck.

 

Just a SWAG, but I suspect that the car removes necessary loads from the inverter when that system is in distress. AC being one of the bigger non-essential loads.

 

So now you know that the one of the first 4 that diagnosed the compressor is the knowlegeable one. What was the final bill?

 

Was the compressor the only thing they replaced?. Did the dealer state the the compressor burnt out? If so later you may have problems with a short compressor life because of metal flakes partly blocking the condenser. It may work for now but fail later. I'v seen many Toyota dealers just replace the compressor and later the customer is buying a 3rd one. There is a lot of little new diagnostic procedures bugs to be worked out on the new inverter ran compressors it,s old news to commercial and residential A/C and refrigeration units I work on but the automotive guys are just learning, trying to apply old school to the pruis. Often its more then one problem by the time the customer brings the car in for repair. Many times its more then one test and more then one recharge take apart and recharge and test a few other components. It's long and costly, the service writer, service manger, owner of the shop , and especially the customer dose not want to hear this. With the older and new system is now always so.

If automotive shop were in charge of keeping our country food supply freezers and refrigeration working we would be a starving country. Would you put up with that, then why do we when it comes to our cars.

 

So if I understand,you had been in a front end collision a year ago and a body shop worked on your car. Your A/C worked fine for about a year then your compressor went out?. Then the toyota master tech said this was caused by the jarring from the hit? if i'm understanding you correctly.

Did the toyota master tech state on the repair order that the compressor took a physical hit and showed sines of external damage? or did he note there was a code set for a electrical short in the compressor? Yes I have seen way too many pruis compressor fail a year + or - After a front end collision and after a body shop or repair shop repaired the front end. If you still have the paper work that was done from the body shop in the estimate was there a A/C service or recharge or condenser and or radiator replaced? Some times the condenser need just to be removed out of the way to repair or replace something else then put back and recharged. If this is the case I talk about this vary situation extensively in my photo album about body doing a/c on pruis and a year later the compressor goes out and its not from jarring! in 99% . I would like to tear down that compressor to see the bearings and and run a oil analysis on what a/c compressor oil they used ?.

 

did you ever get this problem fixed????
I wish people would post the fix once they find the problem