My beloved movable chair, the 96 S 420 in the garage, has done it to me
again! Took it to ole smilin sam who replaced the leaky evaporator.
Since that replacement, the cooling stops after driving for 90 to 120
minutes. Turning the compressor off lets things melt or cool down or
something and the ac will work again after 15 to 30 minutes go by.
Suggestions included low freon (or that new stuff that does good things
to the atmosphere when it leaks out) or a bad or missing or improperly
reinstalled evaporation temp sensor. So Ole Smilin Sam checked the
fluid and found it 0.5 lbs low. He thinks that may have been causing
the problem. But that would not explain why ac screwed up the first
time I drove it anywhere after the new evaporator was put in - trip
took place within a week or so of the repair. I asked Smiling Sam about
the temp switch, but he ignored the question. He says that something is
probably heating up. And ole growly cookie monster who runs the office
suggests that it could be the temp control switch. They did have to
keep it a second day, so perhaps they did go in on the left lower side
of the dash behind the gas pedal to fix the evap temp sensor, but I
think they would have mentioned that.

So now my question is - can any of these things be tested?

If so, I may consider visiting Heavy Carl, the local stealership. They
will charge at least $100 to test anything, of course, and then minimum
$1000 to repair it. But this may be cheaper to do than to buy the
current 5.5 gas eater version of the new computerized S Klass. And if I
can't get the thing fixed, I will have to buy a different car before
April, probably a used Kudzu Kar cause the new Kudzu Kar is koming out
this fall.

mcbrue warminguply under the bridge in the trailer down by the river

96 S420