Rep Power: 0

Hello, I had something happen with my A/C today and I'm not sure what the cause could be.

A/C was working perfectly fine. I was driving on the expressway and had to quickly accelerate to avoid being hit by someone who didn't seem to know how to merge. When I did this, the car hesitated first before accelerating and I heard a squealing noise.

Parked the car and was in the store for about an hour. When I got back into my car and started it, I noticed it was not getting as cold as it normally does. It's really hot here today and at first I thought it was just taking a while to cool off, but after 15 minutes or so there was no difference.

I normally have both the A/C and re-circulation button on when running the air. If I turned one off, there is still a fan blowing, but not as hard. If I turn it back on, more fan blowing, cooler, etc. I'm assuming this is how the A?C is normally supposed to function.

Now that this happened, the fan is blowing, but turning one of the buttons on or off brings no change to the force of the fan or to increase the cold air.

I'm assuming the squealing upon acceleration was the serpentine belt slipping. So I'm wondering if the lack of fan power I'm noticing is because the condenser fan isn't running. Best guess is that it would due to the belt. Or is it possible I just need a recharge and the fact that the belt is slipping is just a coincidence? Or am I completely clueless and it's totally something else?

 
Rep Power: 812

its possible your a/c belt broke off. i would open the hood and check for any pulleys that are missing a belt or evidence of belt shreds. if the air is getting colder than just the fan, then it may be something else. when you mash the gas, the a/c compressor is supposed to turn off to give you more power, then come back on when you release the gas back to normal. maybe something went wrong and the compressor seized up, causing a belt to snap off.

 
Rep Power: 0

this is normal opperation the hotter the ambient air temperature the less thermally efficient the a/c system is, if the belt broke off you would have no cool air at all it would blow hot. as far as the recirculate function the fan speed will slightly increase due to the stop of outside air flowing against the fan. and for the belt squeal your belts have a manual tensioner that can be adjusted, have your belts inspected for cracks and fraying and replace or adjust as necessary