Sensing failure, AC failure

[genericuserid]

Hi. I've spent some time searching and looking over posts on these issues, so I know the gist and that these are fairly common problems. Just can't find the answer to a few of my questions.

After swapping over to my winter tires in the fall, next morning I got the suite of warning lights (tire pressure monitor issue, hill start assist problem, ACC problem, etc.). I had to fight a little with one of the tires to get it off, but not that much. Not sure if that threw something off. Other than the warning lights, and the fact that things like ACC and lane departure warnings don't work, there doesn't seem to be a problem with the car (I have power steering, and the car seems to drive fine). No indication the battery is low, but I haven't tested it.

First time I tried my AC this summer, it blew warm. It was fine last summer.

With the pandemic, and very little driving, I didn't bother to make an appointment with the dealer until recently. But they couldn't get me in for a month. I made the appointment, but I'm thinking of going on a bit of a road trip. So a few questions:

1) Is it at all likely that there's a problem beyond the sensing suite? I'm working under the assumption that now I've simply got a "normal" old-school car, without any of the fancy brake assist stuff, but that it runs fine and is perfectly safe. Certainly seems that way when I drive it. Could I be missing something here?

2) Is there any way to use cruise control without ACC under the current situation? I've searched around, and found the method for turning ACC off and running in "cruise mode", but to get there it seems like I have to start cruise using ACC. Can non-ACC cruise be turned on while ACC is malfunctioning?

3) Is there anything I can try to check/fix the air conditioning or sensing? Even something with a low probability of success (and no real chance of screwing things up or voiding warranty)? Ordinarily I'd just wait for the dealer, but I'd really like to have air and cruise for the trip.

Thanks.

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[calonzo]

1. The car should run fine without the sensing features. Of course, it won't be as safe as if they were working.
2. Have you tried turning on Cruise Mode? I haven't heard of anyone try this yet.
3. I wouldn't touch the AC if it can be fixed under warranty. If they detect any refrigerant other than the type originally in the vehicle, they won't even touch it.

 

[bluehatch17]

If you don’t drive your car much and it’s relatively new, you are probably under warranty on all things. Bring it in to the dealer.

your should never blow hot air other than the first few seconds when you start the car, afterwards, a normal ac will get cold pretty much within 5 seconds.

 

[TriangleHeat]

Usually when you get bombed with a ton of errors simultaneously like that, it's due to an electrical issue and not the sensors themselves, simply because the odds of the sensors all going bad simultaneously is highly unlikely. I've personally witnessed the error bombing if the battery goes dead and is replaced, requires you to drive for a while for the system to calibrate steering angle and all of the other stuff.

Another thing that causes this is rodents chewing through wiring harnesses. Since the backdrop of your story is non-driving due to pandemic, I'm willing to bet animals took up residence since humans haven't been near the car in a while. I haven't checked the wiring diagrams but if they caused it by chewing through a harness, it'd either be a grounding wire against a body or engine ground for the ground signal, for the positive signal it's probably one of the wires running from the positive terminal to the fuse box (or boxes if there's more than one), since almost everything in the car that needs a positive signal (like the sensors) gets it after it's been through the fuses and relays. Check the harnesses going from the positive terminal of the battery to the ECU as well.

Or just let the dealership worry about it, I personally don't think your winter tire swap had anything to do with it. IF you do find the damage in the harness, don't see how you can fix it temporarily since you'd have to strip the two ends down to even do a temporary wiring fix like a wire nut or a WAGO connector. If the dealer saw the wire was stripped come appointment time, they would probably throw the problem on your lap since you tampered with it. Come to think of it, if it was rodent damage would they even do anything for free? If they're going to charge, I'd fix it myself by soldering new automotive grade/gauge wire with heatshrink tubing, they're going to do the same anyway or worse.

For the A/C issue, if it's the leaking condenser and your's is a 2020, that's super disappointing that the defective condensers made it that high up the model year range. How hot was the ambient temperature that day? Hot days require you to crank the A/C up and pushes it to the limit due to how hot the air is and since it impacts how easily the condenser can shed the heat out into the air, also did you have it on recirculation? Something else I noticed is that lately I've begun to feel like the A/C was cold but not as cold as it should be, recirculation was on but just for the heck of it I turned recirc off, then back on, after doing that the A/C became ice cold. I'm not sure if there's some disconnect between the recirc indicator and the actual door configuration for that door that sits above the cabin air filter or what, but it was immediately noticeable, this was after fifteen minutes of driving too when the A/C should have been working at full blast.

 

[genericuserid]

Thanks for the input guys!

"How hot was the ambient temperature that day? Hot days require you to crank the A/C up and pushes it to the limit due to how hot the air is and since it impacts how easily the condenser can shed the heat out into the air, also did you have it on recirculation?"

I've tried it a bunch of times, playing around with recirc on/off, etc., letting it run for a long time while driving, and I'm not getting anything remotely resembling cool air. It was fine the last time I used it last summer, and now it's (seemingly) completely dead.

 

[shoegazer]

'Fought a little getting (the wheel) off' is what I would suspect re: the Sensing. The speed/rotation sensor/counter would be my first thing to inspect.

My understanding with the AC is that the seals in the compressor dry out (and leak refrigerant) during long periods of non-use. Other threads have suggested running the AC periodically throughout the colder months to keep it all mixed up and seasoned. I suspect that you are low on refrigerant.

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