HVAC - AC not blowing ice cold.

[MikkiJayne]

Originally Posted by steamship

Turns out, if I switch my ECON off, the engine stalls.

This is bad and means the compressor is locked up or is about to undergo rapid unscheduled disassembly. There's nothing electrical which could cause that, and the engine doesn't care if there's gas or not. In fact, that implies there is gas since the hvac wouldn't try and engage the clutch if there wasn't. See if you can turn the inner portion of the pulley by hand - it should spin freely with the engine off. I suspect it won't move, so when the clutch engages its putting an untenable load on the engine at idle and stalling it.

I would suggest pulling the compressor fuse (S8 in ST3) until you can get it replaced as what you definitely don't want is the internals exploding and going through the rest of the system. That gets messy and needs the dash out.

There are Hella replacements on ebay for £180 iirc, or thereabouts. I've used a bunch of them and they seem to work well. Its simple to DIY as well - just get it discharged, its about an hour's work to swap even on axle stands, and then recharge.