1979lee Posted July 15, 2006 Report Share Posted July 15, 2006 hey all!!! i have a 98 lumina and my a/c is giving me fits of late on acceleration or up a small or any type of hill or an overpass the a/c drops to the floor , as soon as you let up off of the throttle it come back up . i have replaced the vac check valve, under the hood and replace any suspect rubber vacuume conectors/hoses and still the problem exists any help or ideas to fix this problem soon would be very helpfull it's bad hot here 100+ so this is a major problem that needs to bee addressed. thanks , lee Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DiscoStudd Posted July 15, 2006 Report Share Posted July 15, 2006 Check the vacuum ball that resides behind the driver's side headlight. Actually you can access it from underneath the car... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1979lee Posted July 18, 2006 Author Report Share Posted July 18, 2006 well the vac resivore seems to hold vacumme at least overnight, and all of the underhood lines look very good , so ... whats next? lee Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DiscoStudd Posted July 18, 2006 Report Share Posted July 18, 2006 Do you have the check valve "orientated" in the proper direction? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1979lee Posted July 19, 2006 Author Report Share Posted July 19, 2006 Affermative yeah i thought about that too and i double checked it and it was correct no this is a thing i thought i'd not have to deal with on a newer chevy, i thought they'd done away with vacumme controlled a/c by then, i know that the last chevy i owned (1978 chevrolet caprice) did the same thing , and i never was able to fix it, well if anyone has any thoughts why the a/c does this please let me know thnak lee Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1979lee Posted August 1, 2006 Author Report Share Posted August 1, 2006 i still need assistance with this problem , today i replaced the vac resivore and the a/c still drops too the floor so....? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1979lee Posted September 25, 2006 Author Report Share Posted September 25, 2006 well all today i fixed my a/c problem , come to find out. there was a bak vacumme electric swithch behind the glove box, if this were a 70's cadillac , it would be called a programmer, but its fixed and no more a/c on he floor Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crazy K Posted September 25, 2006 Report Share Posted September 25, 2006 any clue on exactly what was wrong with the old one? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1979lee Posted September 25, 2006 Author Report Share Posted September 25, 2006 it does have a rattel when you shake it , but besides that no idea why its broken, i went to the local pick a part and got a used unit for 4.99+tax and fees Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ron350 Posted September 29, 2006 Report Share Posted September 29, 2006 1979lee This is good information can you post a picture of the bad part? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1979lee Posted September 30, 2006 Author Report Share Posted September 30, 2006 If i could i would,(no scanner or camera) i can tell you that the part is right behind th glove box and is bolted it with 2 ,4.5mm screws and it has an electrical connector with abour 7 wires , and has a 5 INCH loNG clear rubber vacumme connector with 6 hoses , one yellow , one orange , one red , one blue , one chocolate brown and the main a/c vac line from the engine gm model # 16050460 made by delco , assembled in mexico serial # 8757868 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RJansen658 Posted September 30, 2006 Report Share Posted September 30, 2006 Yes... I know what you are talking about. My controls wouldn't change off of floor when I got my Lumina and I traced it to that controller.... I has a lot of little electric solenoids on it, correct? The buttons on the HVAC controls are connected to it and it activates the solenoids to redirect the vaccum supply to different diaphrams and such to change it from floor to vent to defrost, whatever. Mine the black supply hose was screwed in between something pinching the supply off. Mine had a clear plastic cover over it.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1979lee Posted September 30, 2006 Author Report Share Posted September 30, 2006 Yes... I know what you are talking about. My controls wouldn't change off of floor when I got my Lumina and I traced it to that controller.... I has a lot of little electric solenoids on it, correct? The buttons on the HVAC controls are connected to it and it activates the solenoids to redirect the vaccum supply to different diaphrams and such to change it from floor to vent to defrost, whatever. Mine the black supply hose was screwed in between something pinching the supply off. Mine had a clear plastic cover over it.... yeah i took my 98 lumina to my local trusted a/c shop and the went all over the a/c system ,and narrowed it down to that switch too, they told me that had never heard of a lumina needing this switch replaced but a lot of buicks have this problem, i did a google search , and i did not find any pics of this part . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew Posted October 1, 2006 Report Share Posted October 1, 2006 mine always stays in the defroster area, could i have the same problem?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ron350 Posted October 1, 2006 Report Share Posted October 1, 2006 1979lee Thanks for the information. Found a little information about this in the Electrical section of the service manual. The thing is called a “Vacuum / Electric Solenoid†and has “5†separate vacuum solenoids inside. The one in my car was the same part # 16050460 and the 6 pin wiring plug needed to be resoldered to the circuit board. Wish I had a camera. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1979lee Posted October 1, 2006 Author Report Share Posted October 1, 2006 1979lee Thanks for the information. Found a little information about this in the Electrical section of the service manual. The thing is called a “Vacuum / Electric Solenoid†and has “5†separate vacuum solenoids inside. The one in my car was the same part # 16050460 and the 6 pin wiring plug needed to be resoldered to the circuit board. Wish I had a camera. You are all welcome , and if i could find a pic i would post it, but i don't have a digital camera, i still use 35mm , so i guess i need to get one , you can get them of like 20 bucks at wall mart so .. .. . . . After i changed the part no more problems, we all know how annoying it can be when the a/c or def dosent work , i used to own a 78 cadillac coupe deville , and it was a beautiful car , but the hvac really sucked , it did the exact same thing , plus the heater always constantly ran eveny with the a/c on ,so i sold it and got my 98 lumina, it was a former dective/welfair pool car for the city/county of sanbernardino california, she runs good and was well mantained. well godd luck to ya out there , lee Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
barneykleven Posted July 27, 2011 Report Share Posted July 27, 2011 well all today i fixed my a/c problem , come to find out. there was a bak vacumme electric swithch behind the glove box, if this were a 70's cadillac , it would be called a programmer, but its fixed and no more a/c on he floor I have the exact same problem with my 98 Lumina and so does the guy working on my house with his son's Lumina. I must be a more common problem than you would think. Did you get the part at a junk yard? The new ones look like they're in the $70 range. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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