One reason I went Ford for my newest truck is Ford's great A/C, but it hasn't impressed me yet on my '06. I live in south FL. so A/C is a big thing for me. My friend's '02 F-250 can make it very cold inside on the hottest and most humid days. My F150 has struggled in the mere 80s we've had lately.

 

I have a black/black 04 screw here in sunny alabama. With the humidity factored in, it gets really hot here in july and august. I wasnt happy with the ac performance and the refrigerant level checked out "fine" at the dealer. I put an electric fan on and it really made a huge improvement in startup ac performance. Just something to think about...

 

If the dealer is sticking to the minimums listed they will not add R134 unless it is way down.
So why not go to a real A/C place?
Tell them it is not quite cooling right, tell them the dealers only put so much R134 in them and you have heard it may not be enough. Most shops can check and top up the A/C for 30-40 bucks. Some will do it for less. Just because some dealers don't know Jack about A/C is no reason to suffer or put expensive extras on. Unless of course you just want to add them anyway which is cool.

Do NOT go into an A/C place, tell them the design is flawed, the truck A/C never works right, etc. etc. Then they would have to charge you to troubleshoot, very expensive, they would also peg you as a 'problem customer'. Those are the customers you bill a lot and ignore, if you deal with them at all.

Keep this in mind; if the design was bad, with about a million of these trucks sold, there would be huge lines for service at every dealership in the Southwest every hot day.
Some have low R134. Some may have other problems, such as leaking or blend door problems, etc. just like any other car/truck.

There are a lot of government mandated changes in A/C that without a doubt reduce the A/C potential.
R134 is lousy, CAFE affects the A/C dramatically, but overall these trucks do have good A/C if everything is up to snuff.
Chris

 

Good to know... didnt know this was an option. I may even take in my Lexus which is doing the same thing.

 

My Black on Black 04 never seemed to cool down, and I had the dealer "fix" the AC twice, first time it was low on refrigerant and the second time apparently it had a leak...just attributed it to the color but in comparison my wifes suburban gets ice cold and it's a very dark color too.

 

So your system was low on refrigerant and also had a leak?
That makes me suspect your dealer does not understand/care/comprehend A/C.
You are a candidate for a real A/C shop. And the best part, if you can verify that the dealer could not fix it, but an independent shop could, I suspect you can easily get the dealership to pay for the repairs.

Bring in the invoice that shows Ford couldn't fix it, and then bring in the invoice that the place that fixed it gives you... Small claims court would side with you, and the dealer knows that.

The whole idea that the dealer is the only place that does A/C is not true.
Locally we have about 100 shops that do A/C, maybe 20 that do nothing but A/C.
PCM, things like that are pretty much dealer because the truck is still 'new' but everything from brakes oil changes A/C recharge etc. aftermarket is always gonna be cheaper and often better.
Some dealerships are gonna be great at some problems. It's like going to a big restaurant. They have a great chef who fixes one kind of food perfectly. But how many restaurants have ten great chefs? Or twenty? None.

A dealership must work on all kinds of things, and is lucky to have an actual expert on more than one or two things. The rest of the time the technicians are just following the step by step instructions in the manual.
Like McDonalds, pictures of burgers on the register, six steps to cook a burger, no conscious thought required. Not a shot at the technicians, but between corporate liability and the fact that top trained guys tend to leave and open their own shops, good people are hard to find.

At a specialty shop, the guy working on the job is not married to a flow chart. He actually understands how A/C or whatever works. He will have 10-100 times the experience as the kid doing A/C at a dealership.
Sure some dealerships have GREAT A/C guys. But if that is not the case, accept it and move on.
Chris

 

I just bought s Orestone HFC- 134a bottle, i recharged in the past the A/C of my cars with R12 is there sometihing I must to know before recharge the A/C 2004 F150 5.4L?

 

I had an 04 & now an 07 & the AC really sucks on these trucks. Ford told me the ac's on these f-150's are meant to get cool, not COLD. Even our little focus zx3 has ICE cold AC. Living in Florida it's a shame these ac suck ***.

 

Hey 5.4, I live in Miami also and I have 06 Screw XLT and the A/C SUCKS!!!! I have a problem, when I start the car after its been sitting all night or for a few hours, I turn on the A/C and it cools for about 2 minutes then it feels as if the compressor has stopped engaging and it just blows hot air. The part that sucks about this is I take trips to the Keys all the time and when we have to change the baby, we will sit in the truck to do it. But after a minute or two it just blows hot air. Its better to open the windows and get the outside breeze.

But if I have been driving the truck for more than 4 or 5 miles and it's warmed up and I sit still, it will blow "cool" air as if running on the highway.

Could this be a sign of low R-134? Any suggestions would help.

Thanks guys.

 

I thought the AC on my 2005 F150 was a little weak so its nice to know it was not just me. I have a recharge kit in the garage I will try with it this weekend.

 

My system was undercharged from the factory.

 

My A/C is pretty good... but no comparison to my '99. The Escape I had stunk too... but the F150 is like a lot better. The Dakota's A/C is equal to my '99's A/C.

But not to stop there... my parents just bought a Jeep Compass Limited... that A/C is a friggin joke. But their '03 Windstar they had would get so cold at times, the humidity in the air would condense around the vents!! That's how cold it was... it was amazing.

 

Thats how my dad's 2002 F250 is and it actually caused the paint to chip off of the dash. .

 

Actually... I think they had a problem with the gauge cluster on the Windstar because it would do it so often on the vent (because of the window) and I suppose it destroyed the circuit board for the cluster. It was fixed under warranty though.

I was surprised that they didn't jack one up on him and say that he left his window open and washed his car, or spilled water in his gauge cluster... etc. They were decent about it at least at the stealership.

 

I find that my AC is good on all but the hottest days.