Question about AC

[weirdthingsaboutyou]

Hello!
I've had my Kalos 2008 1.2 for 2 years now, and never bothered with the AC. But I have a long trip coming up and might need to get it filled up.
My question:
I have never actually tested the AC properly. When I turn it on, the light goes on, but that's it (no sounds under the hood whatsoever).
What are the chances that a simple fill-up will do the trick?

[Uriken]

Most likely the Freon needs filled "as you know" and the compressor will need manually engaged to get this started. If you open the fuse box by the battery and locate your AC Relay. You can use a jumper wire to manually turn on the compressor with the AC Switch pressed inside the car and the setting at the coldest level. Find the positive relay pin to the negative with the jumper wire. Take off the valve stem cap and plug in the Freon hose and pump it in till it is entirely empty (shake the can up a bit before doing this and turn the can upside down when filling). Hope this helps.

[weirdthingsaboutyou]

Most likely the Freon needs filled "as you know" and the compressor will need manually engaged to get this started. If you open the fuse box by the battery and locate your AC Relay. You can use a jumper wire to manually turn on the compressor with the AC Switch pressed inside the car and the setting at the coldest level. Find the positive relay pin to the negative with the jumper wire. Take off the valve stem cap and plug in the Freon hose and pump it in till it is entirely empty (shake the can up a bit before doing this and turn the can upside down when filling). Hope this helps.

Thank you for your quick reply! I'm a bit clueless about AC-related things and cars in general, so I don't really understand why I would need to use jumper wires.
Can you go into a bit more detail please??

[Uriken]

If you are in the car and have the AC button pressed with your setting all the way on cold and the compressor is not working then there is a few things that can be going on. Blown fuse / relay, compressor plug wires not contacting, BUT most likely it is because the Freon tank is empty and there is a valve "Lock out" that will not allow the compressor to run so you cannot damage it with an empty tank. Thus needing to manually jump it to start it to draw in the Freon to refill. When refilled; it resets the lock out valve.

[weirdthingsaboutyou]

If you are in the car and have the AC button pressed with your setting all the way on cold and the compressor is not working then there is a few things that can be going on. Blown fuse / relay, compressor plug wires not contacting, BUT most likely it is because the Freon tank is empty and there is a valve "Lock out" that will not allow the compressor to run so you cannot damage it with an empty tank. Thus needing to manually jump it to start it to draw in the Freon to refill. When refilled; it resets the lock out valve.

Thank you for this info. I had no clue! Will give this a go!

[2010AveoLT]

Most likely the Freon needs filled "as you know" and the compressor will need manually engaged to get this started. If you open the fuse box by the battery and locate your AC Relay. You can use a jumper wire to manually turn on the compressor with the AC Switch pressed inside the car and the setting at the coldest level. Find the positive relay pin to the negative with the jumper wire. Take off the valve stem cap and plug in the Freon hose and pump it in till it is entirely empty (shake the can up a bit before doing this and turn the can upside down when filling). Hope this helps.

that's a pretty good way to burn up wiring, and ruin the compressor; the ACTUAL reason why the compressor is not engaging is because there is a low pressure cutoff switch that is there to protect the compressor when there isn't enough refrigerant in the system for proper operation. you still have to turn on the AC Demand switch on the HVAC controls, but as you add refrigerant to the system and it goes above the threshold of the cutoff switch, it will allow the compressor clutch to engage. you don't need to 'manually jump start' the compressor to add refrigerant.

[Uriken]

Low cut off switch is the same as the lock out! And jumping trips it for 1 second so how does that burn up anything? Never had one burn up in 100's. Don't comment if you don't think first.