This is a nice conversion van, we are second owners, and yes it does have many miles on it. We have maintained it impecably, replacing whatever breaks with new, spare no expense. 5 years ago we had dealer replace A/C compressor, and since then no problems, until a few weeks ago it started acting up. It would blow cold, cold air, then after going 20 miles, would gradually stop cooling, but still blowing air, and slightly cool air. If you turn it off for a while, sometimes 10 minutes, sometimes an hour later, it would start up and do fine. Somedays, even the hottest days it would cool just fine and never shut down. Finally we took it in for servicing, and it worked fine in the shop, tested properly and cooled perfectly. They test drove it on the highway and finally got it to act up, and not cool properly. They put it on the machine, and all pressures tested good. They thought the fan wasn't putting out proper volume, and they diagnosed the blower motor resistor as being bad, and replaced it. Also cleaned coils in the fan unit, no trash or mold or other problems, condensate draining properly. The fan is blowing as good as it has for 10 years. They put it together and said it was cooling. When I picked it up, it was blowing cold. That was Friday evening. Sat morning we took the car in for interior and exterior detailing, and the A/C worked fine. I picked it up a few minutes ago, and it is not blowing cold, but again cool.
Straight up...is this a compressor issue? The repairman talked to me about that, but said if the compressor was bad he should not get proper pressures under test. What about the possibility of clogged cooling coils/tubes in front of the radiator?
I do not know...I need help. Can someone shed light on this for me?