Q: Air conditioner causing car to overheat
My air conditioner causes my engine temperature to go up. When the air is off, the temperature is fine.
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We need to determine if your vehicle is actually overheating, or if the gage is just reading incorrectly. If your vehicle is overheating; you will no doubt have boil over from the radiator or reservoir. The fact that your gage spikes up so rapidly when A/C is selected leads me to believe that there is an electrical issue somewhere.
Perhaps the coolant temp switch is mistakenly plugged into an A/C pressure switch. You need to find a qualified technician in your area familiar with engine electronics to get to the root cause. YourMechanic has qualified technicians that can help you diagnose your overheating issue.
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