I have a 2006, and I'm in Canada, so it's limited to 100,000 miles.... and I'm at 180,000km, which is approximately 112,000 miles.

Thanks for the link! And I'll be careful, I'm an electrician.

 

Pretty good write-up with photographs on replacing the cooling fans WITHOUT removing the battery pack assembly from the vehicle. You are definitely going to have to address the AC issue.

http://townhall-talk.edmunds.com/direct/view/.f16fe2e

 

Here in the states it is 8 years / 100K miles or 10 years and 150K miles (for CARB states)

 

Update

The solenoid was replaced on the rear A/C. The rapid cycling is better, but still may have problems. Since we are in the middle of a hot summer, the front A/C is on most of the time and this is a work around.

At least I know it is an A/C issue and not a battery or hybrid problem.

AK

 

AK I am very interested in what your fix will be. I am having the same problem. I thought it was my engine cooling fans kicking on and off almost continuously, but it could be the compressor kicking on and off. It takes very little city driving before my hybrid battery is too warm to turn off the ICE, and I just had my battery fans replacd in April. So, it is not that. My car runs better now that the fans were replaced, but I still have a bettery cooling issue. Since my ac is also blowing warm and humid when at a stop, with the motor on, I was hoping that a charge would fix the problem, took my 07 escape to the dealership and had an ac inspection. The diagnosis was ac compressor has low output and I need new ac compressor at $1083. But I am very skeptical and don't want to spend all that money, and still have the battery cooling issue. What do you guys think?

 

Jutren04

I know a bit about air conditioning. Low output on the compressor sounds strange.

It has 2 evaporator coils and each one has a solenoid valve to control refrigerant flow to it. The system should be able to run with either or both coild having refrigerant flow to it.

My problem is that it will run on the front only or both, but not the rear (battery) only.

Find someone who will take a little time with it and is a pretty good A/C person. This one is different from "normal" auto A/C.
On a hot day the battery temp should turn on A/C. Have them look at the pressure and see if it is cycling on high or low pressure switch. This is what mine was doing.

It is better now but not fixed. It will keep the compressor on (rear only) when I am driving slow, but about 40 mph it starts cycling again. I think one of the flexible hoses is probably collapsing on the inside or there is a kink in the steel line.

Since it will cool the battery as needed when the front A/C is on, I will wait until cooler weather to see about it.

I hope this information helps. it is a hard problem to try to figure out because there are so many things that it could be. I will post if I any updates.

 

I have the same problem as AK47 and CraigS I think. The AC compressor cycles on and off every few seconds when the battery temp rises to above 86 degrees. The battery temp will keep rising until it reaches the mid 90's and the ac will stay on more. Then when TAC gets over 100 degrees it refuses to go into hybrid mode at all. The mechanic replaced the MEC pump today and I found the AC still cycles on and off. I had a short drive and found the battery temperature still climbing. I felt the AC lines underneath the car. One (the larger) seemed cool but the AC had not been on long at the time.


When I turn on the AC via the cabin controls the battery will eventually cool but it takes a long time and on hot days it does not cool at all. I've had the battery up to 105 degrees. I should point out that the AC system was recently charged by the mechanic.


Am I to understand that the rear ac solenoid was the fix?


Thanks,
Steve

 

The solenoid is for the cabin A/C, not the rear.

I removed the inside parts to the solenoid and it stopped the A/C compressor from cycling on and off. The side effect of that was the Cabin A/C will come on also when the battery A/C turns on.

I hope that helps.

AK