HVAC/AC weak airflow through vents

[James3637383]

Its been pretty hot in the UK for the last few weeks and Ive noticed a fault that comes and goes with no fault codes ( remote access by tesla engineer). Basically the A/C can be on max output through front vents and not give out air , you can hear the fan working but sometimes it does not come through. There has been a time when an ice partical came through and i am getting the impression something over proglonged use is freezing up and blocking airflow. The Glass Roof enhances the temp issue in the car and its gets very hot in the car to an almost undrivable situation especially with 3 children in the car. I dont believe it to be a gas leak as sometimes it runs faultless. When precooling after a long drive and A/C use its struggles to get below 21 degrees inside the car .

Car is due into the SC next week but i know its going to work fine during the 30-60 mins inspection. Wondering if anybody else has had this or can give me knowledge to ensure SC checks for faults.

Note: range mode is OFF and ive preformed all the resets.

 

[Derek Kessler]

I ran into the same in the US yesterday. 100-mile/160-km drive through an 85F/30C sunny afternoon and the car did fine for the first 2/3 of the trip, but then the cabin fan speed plummeted and it couldn't keep the cabin remotely comfortable for the rest. Range mode off, reset the MCU, no change. AC unit was definitely running at full blast, but very little was actually venting into the cabin.

Scheduling a SC trip for next week because it's only going to get hotter.

 

[ewoodrick]

Those sound like a condenser freeze up. Turn off the A/C, but turn the fan on to give the ice a chance to melt.
If you are keeping the temperature low (below 21c/70f) then you may want to drive with it a little higher. That give the compressor a chance to stop periodically and let the ice melt off. If you keep it at 19c/66f, then it will probably never turn off.

Just raise the temp to 22c/72f and I suspect that the car will be a LOT cooler. If it does get warm, increase the fan speed, don't decrease the temperature.

This is not specific to the car, most other A/C systems/refrigerators can do this.

 

[Fellsteruk]

Pretty hot lol that’s an understatement

 

[Subevo]

Yes temp was 33.2 Celsius last week a record.i love the glass roof but it definitely makes the cabin hotter plus probably makes the roof heavier than a steel or aluminium version.
I remember watching a video of the Mitsubishi evo reducing the weight of the roof and it made car handle better.

I think the air con struggles with the recent temps we've been getting.

 

[Fellsteruk]

We’re all struggling with the temp

 

[WannabeOwner]

We’re all struggling with the temp

Get yerself a nice shiny Passivhaus. Max temp we have had in the house is 23C as the insulation for Winter works in reverse in summer of course (albeit not quite so hot in Suffolk, but didn't get over 23C last summer either and I think we had 30C-ish here too)

 

[GeorgeSymonds]

Going to state the obvious - but you never know - have you changed the direction of the air vent? Some positions close it or at least restrict air flow heavily.

 

[morrisdl]

Mine has froze up a couple times, but not since I removed the phone holder from the vent. Never happened out west in the hot and DRY climates. It only has happened to me in drives over 3 hours in the hot and HUMID south eastern US.

 

[.jg.]

My car had really poor air flow until I swapped the cabin air filter (Aliexpress) and used one of those air con cleaner foam sprays to clean out the air system.

 

[ShadowShook]

Those sound like a condenser freeze up. Turn off the A/C, but turn the fan on to give the ice a chance to melt.
If you are keeping the temperature low (below 21c/70f) then you may want to drive with it a little higher. That give the compressor a chance to stop periodically and let the ice melt off. If you keep it at 19c/66f, then it will probably never turn off.

Just raise the temp to 22c/72f and I suspect that the car will be a LOT cooler. If it does get warm, increase the fan speed, don't decrease the temperature.

This is not specific to the car, most other A/C systems/refrigerators can do this.

Thank you!! You may just have saved my life-had ZERO air coming out of the vents, turned the a/c off and VOILA! My hero.

 

[gt2690b]

My car had really poor air flow until I swapped the cabin air filter (Aliexpress) and used one of those air con cleaner foam sprays to clean out the air system.

did you just spray the coils on the front of the car or what?

 

[zayn]

which model do you have ?

Its been pretty hot in the UK for the last few weeks and Ive noticed a fault that comes and goes with no fault codes ( remote access by tesla engineer). Basically the A/C can be on max output through front vents and not give out air , you can hear the fan working but sometimes it does not come through. There has been a time when an ice partical came through and i am getting the impression something over proglonged use is freezing up and blocking airflow. The Glass Roof enhances the temp issue in the car and its gets very hot in the car to an almost undrivable situation especially with 3 children in the car. I dont believe it to be a gas leak as sometimes it runs faultless. When precooling after a long drive and A/C use its struggles to get below 21 degrees inside the car .

Car is due into the SC next week but i know its going to work fine during the 30-60 mins inspection. Wondering if anybody else has had this or can give me knowledge to ensure SC checks for faults.

Note: range mode is OFF and ive preformed all the resets.

 

[.jg.]

did you just spray the coils on the front of the car or what?

I used Klima Cleaner (there are other similar products) which comes with a long flexible plastic tube. You feed the tubing into an air vent of the car and try to get the tubing to head down towards the air conditioning matrix. You then press on the aerosol to release cleaning foam, while slowly pulling the tube back out. This leaves some in the air conditioning matrix and in the ducting up to the air vent. Repeat for each air vent and then let the foam do it's job and evaporate. I also removed the cabin air filter (in the frunk) and put some foam in there.

Having written that, I should have said - there are videos on YouTube that show exactly what to do (It is the same for any car).