Ac Light Blinks

[chajones]

I has been raining a lot here lately, and while driving my wife's 2000 ES300 the AC light in the HVAC controls would start blinking after going through large puddles. The AC compressor apparently would stop as well, as the air through the vents became noticeably more humid. I could push the AC button and the light would go off, then push the auto button and everything would go back to normal. What is cauising this, and do I have a problem? Thanks.

[mburnickas]

Belt slipping on pully?

[amf1932]

Possibly slightly low refrigerant level.

[lexusk8]

The link below tells you how to diagnose problems in your A/C system. Although the link uses the LS400 as an example, the procedure works for the ES (I know this because I tried it out in my '01 ES).

http://www.lexls.com/tutorials/air/accodes.html

[steviej]

the belt was slipping on the pulley when it got wet. This happened to me recently. Been raining here since middle of May. Turns out the left side of my underside splash guard had lost two pushpins and was hanging a bit. Water easily got up on the pulley in puddles. Fixed the splash guard and severely decrease the amount of water that can get up there. Several rain storms since and no flashing light.

Now, if it happens when the car is totally dry and you don't get wet from a puddle, then start looking into it further.

When was the last time the belt was replace or tightened?

steviej

[chajones]

the belt was slipping on the pulley when it got wet. This happened to me recently. Been raining here since middle of May. Turns out the left side of my underside splash guard had lost two pushpins and was hanging a bit. Water easily got up on the pulley in puddles. Fixed the splash guard and severely decrease the amount of water that can get up there. Several rain storms since and no flashing light.

Now, if it happens when the car is totally dry and you don't get wet from a puddle, then start looking into it further.

When was the last time the belt was replace or tightened?

steviej

Thanks for the advice. I don't know when the belt was last serviced. I bought the car last fall with about 45,000 miles on it from a dealer as a CPO. I have only had it serviced at the dealer, including the 60,000 miles service. My guess is that at the 90,000 mile serve the belts will be replaced. I suspect you're correct though, becasue it only happened during torrential rains going through rather deep puddles, and has not happened before or since. Thanks again.