Hi,



I called my brother, who is an oil burner mechanic. He also thought it was
related to the vacuum control of the door (louver he called it) that routes
the air. He said to try two things. One was to try turning the fan on, then
go through the settings, and then turn it off. And then on, etc. and see if
eventually she gets air flow. That actually worked, temporarily. Also he
said to try banging the dash board above the glove compartment. That also
worked, temporarily.

My daughter also found that turning off the air conditioner and fan for a
while, and then doing the above steps, worked a little better in that the
air circulation was good for a longer time.

So my daughter can now "nurse" the air conditioning for the rest of the
trip. Then she'll bring it in to a mechanic to get it fixed. I'll let her
know about the calibration issue so she can tell the mechanic.

Thanks,

Bob P.





"QX" <nomail@nospam.com> wrote in message
news:f57c94100rhsdemgghbb8mbc1k44jeqgfv@4ax.com...
> On Sun, 3 Aug 2008 10:14:01 -0500, "Bob Palermo"
> <rj_palermo@comcast.net> wrote:
>
>>Hi,
>>
>>I'm hoping for some quick ideas on what might be wrong :
>>
>>My daughter is driving our 2000 Dodge Stratus on a long trip from
>>Minnesota
>>to the east coast. About 2 hours into the trip, she turned on the air
>>conditioner. It was at first working fine, but then the air flow
>>decreased.
>>The air is still cold but very little is flowing in, regardless of the fan
>>level. She says the fan sounds like it's running fine, and the car temp is
>>right in the middle of the range (so it's not overheating)
>>
>>I had her do a few experiments :
>>
>>1)Turn off the air and the fan, leaving the recircluate button off (ie :
>>allow outside air in)
>>Slow air flow, air is cold
>>
>>2)Turn off air, fan, and turn recirculate button on.
>>No air flow (as expected)
>>
>>3)With recirculate button on, and air conditioner off, turn of the fan to
>>the different settings
>>Slow air flow, air is not cold
>>
>>4)With recirculate button on, and air conditioner on, turn of the fan to
>>the different settings
>>Slow air flow, air is cold.
>>
>>So it seems that it's somehow related to the venting system, not the air
>>conditioner or the fan.
>>
>>The car has about 120000 miles on it and it has been relatively well
>>maintained.
>>
>>Any ideas?
>>
>>Thanks,
>>
>>Bob P
>>
> This may be related to a similar problem I was having with a 97
> Caravan. Do a web search for "calibration procedure A/C dodge" or
> similar search terms..
>
> For some reason or other, the vacuum motors that control the doors
> that route the air around get confused. The calibration procedure took
> care of the problem.