Ac on but no cold air

[Bikerbilly]

Need advice from the Z4 collective mind. Just bought a 2004 (E85) auto, 2.5. Looks like the previous owner did a heater core delete (by blocking off the two hoses going in & out). I thought they did that because of a leaking heater core. There was no heat coming out of the vents (even though it was set on max heat). I unblocked and replaced the two hoses. Now there's heat and confirmed that there's no leak or funny smell coming from the heater core and no coolant leak. But now I realized that there's no cold air when I turn on the AC. I confirmed that there's plenty of freon and the compressor works. The flaps that divert the air vents work. Swapped out the climate control module and still has same issue. What else can I look into?

[salfer]

Long shot because your heater works but could your car be in “transport mode”? If you have a code reader, some of them can clear “transport mode”.

[Bikerbilly]

Yup, had a local indy shop confirmed its not in transport mode.

[salfer]

[Usel]

What country are you in? I believe the AC will only work above around 8°c. In the UK we should be warm enough at the moment for it to work.

With the engine cold and the ac button off, start the engine, look to see if the radiator fan is spinning. It shouldn't be, then turn on the ac and the fan should spin.

[Rockhopper]

Yeh, what’s the outside temperature at the moment? AC won’t work when it’s very cold to avoid it all icing up.

[Matty_Z4]

What country are you in? I believe the AC will only work above around 8°c. In the UK we should be warm enough at the moment for it to work.

Yeh, what’s the outside temperature at the moment? AC won’t work when it’s very cold to avoid it all icing up.

I have automatic AC and use it all year round to keep the windows from steaming up in the winter and have done on all of my cars since I was lucky enough to own one with Automatic AC (Circa 2012). Saying that I normally have the temp set to 20-22c on the dial so never actually feel the cold air I just know its working as you get barley any fog on a cold morning and what fog you do get dissipates very fast.

Given I have never paid attention to the outside temp and just let the car do its thing I decided to look it up and verify as I know the roof doesnt work below a certain temperature so wanted to know what/if the same temp was for AC. According to the manual (page 62) the "Max Cooling" button stops working below 0c

Screenshot 2023-12-24 at 10.19.03.png (267.94 KiB) Viewed 135 times

As for why it may not be working I concur with Usel check that the cooling fan kicks in when you have the AC turned on. You said the AC clutch kicks in and there is plenty of refrigerant so thats a good start.
If the fan doesn't kick in or the AC clutch kicks on and then kicks off again I would look at the AC pressure switch as if the car thinks its low on refrigerant it will stop the compressor from running. It could be a faulty expansion valve but I wouldn't have the first clue on how to check that.

That50sKid has a few good videos

[Usel]

My 2003 manual says minimum 5°c, so it depends on the year of the car.

I originally said 8°c because I knew my VW was that and assumed most cars were the same.

Good to know they can run down to 0°c in newer cars

[enuff_zed]

Are you certain the compressor is engaging? The outer pulley always turns but the centre only turns when you switch ac on and the clutch engages. If not, check the pressure sensor mounted at the rear corner of the engine bay in the coolant pipe