OT - Anybody on the West Side of St. Louis know about Mer...

Rented a car from a local PA dealer to make a whirlwind trip to St. Louis for a family gathering this weekend. Drove ~12 hours yesterday and the car was pretty miserable most of the afternoon. Hear plenty of fan noise, but the dampers/doors that direct the air must be pretty screwed up. Doesn't matter where I try to direct the air nothing comes to the cabin. Probably means dismantling the dash to fix, but hoping somebody has some simple trouble shooting things to try.

Hoping it is overcast for the drive home tomorrow,

Kirk

Subject line lets you type more than it shows...

Supposed to say it is a Mercury Milan (2010).

I'm 125 miles west.
That might have a plugged up cabin air filter. If so,
you'd have a big puddle of water under the car when you stopped.
That's about all you could fix with minimal tools on a
parking lot at the auto supply store.
There's a youtube video on changing the filter out.
Good luck!
Steve

No question. You need a cabin filter. In a pinch, you might be able to either take it out completely or just make a few good sized holes in it to let the air flow through. Then, when you return, you might want to give that dealer a bit of complaint about poorly maintained rental units.

Find the cabin air filter, pull it out, toss it in the trash. Let the next guy worry about it.

Just got in the car to run some errands and it is blowing plenty of air. Would a clogged condensate drain back up without spilling into the cabin in this car? Carpet is dry.

Thanks for the quick replies.

Kirk

More random thoughts...

Got in the car yesterday morning and it was overcast and cool enough that we turned the air off. When we needed it later it might have worked for a bit, don't really remember, wasn't paying attention. Later in the afternoon it was just not blowing any quantity of air at all. Could hear plenty of fan noise and when I tried to change the air flow location I could hear dampers/doors moving and air noise would change a little, but nothing moved air into the cabin. As stated below I ran some errands this morning and had plenty of air so wondering what would be intermittent. Dealer wouldn't have noticed it if it works for a while, but after continuous long term use stops.

Not thinking Cabin Filter since it is working fine now, but is it behind the glove box? I found a picture and procedure that says remove the glove box to gain access to the filter.

Thanks for the quick thoughts and replies,

Kirk

I'm SW of St. Louis in Fenton, Mo.
Sounds like compressor is not cycling on and off causing the evaporator to ice up blocking air flow.
Could be low on freon. Maybe go to an auto parts store that will check that for you.
If you are on the road you could try turning the ac off and keep the air flowing to melt the ice off and you get good air flow again then ac back on. (pain)
WaltMo

I'm assuming by now you are working off a diagram for that particular car. Is there anything on the engine side of the firewall, duct work for fresh air intake? I've had mice build nests in a completely different car on the engine side of the firewall. I forget if they could access the interior straight through, but there was a problem with air flow. I did change the cabin air filter too. Eventually, one mouse literally died in the nest and the odor was rapidly becoming unbearable. I opened the hood and took off the cowling near the windshield or peeled it up enough by unfastening enough of it to do so, and it revealed the problem. I removed the nest intact, dead mouse in the nest, cleaned all of the duct work, both inside the cabin and out. Installed a piece of hardware cloth to prevent access again, and that was all it took, been years now, darned mice can be a real pain. More times than not, its a mouse nest around here. DM model Mack I used to drive, had the heater console stuffed full of paper toweling, as I'd leave a roll inside to clean with, so I could keep the cab neat and orderly at all times. Hardly any heat or air, it was in the shop, so the mechanic cleaned it out and showed me. I suspected it, so mentioned same when it went in for repairs, and was about to take it apart when something else more urgent needed repair on this truck.

have you called the dealer you rented it from to ask him?

I would not mess with it I would be calling that dealer in PA. and wanting to know where he wants me to take it to be fixed and he foots the bill.

Thanks for the replies/thoughts...

Too many activities to squeeze into the weekend so didn't want to take time sitting at a dealer waiting for a fix. Locals would have coordinated another car if needed, but that takes time to set up too. Was willing to try a simple fix myself and take it back to the dealer with receipt and a time bill.

Thankfully the AC just worked for the rest of the weekend. My working theory is that it was iced up. The day was cool when we started and probably had the AC on with fan speed low. Maybe refrigerant level was a bit low adding to the icing. Just sorry I didn't have my brain engaged during the hot drive Friday and thought to just turn the AC off keeping the fan running as somebody mentioned here. Probably would have taken 30 minutes or less and we would have had AC.

As always, this is a great site and thanks for the willingness to help.

Kirk