In St. Louis, with our level of heat and humidity, we live and die by our A/C - home and car. This 2006 ZX3 SES Ford Focus has about 58,000 miles on it and the AC is essentially no longer working. I first attempted to fill it with 134A. The low side is located in front of the right front tire, on top of the accumulator/receiver dryer. Getting to this, unless you are a mechanic, means taking off the front tire and fender cover. Two tries with filling it did not work. I talked to an auto parts consultant at Advance Auto Parts who said the system was probably clogged, so coolant was not getting through. I had the level checked at Valvoline Instant Oil Change and they showed no problems with system. They took out old and put in new. No change in temperature. Fortunately they only charged me for checking system - $20, even though they filled it.

I will take this to a Ford Dealer, and if it costs a significant amount of money to fix, and it probably will, I will not be happy. This car is only three years old, with 58,000 miles on it. A problem of this degree with the A/C should not be happening.

I bought my focus new back in 2006. In 2007 the air conditioner wasn't working as well as the year before. I thought maybe it was me so I never took it to the dealer. By summer 2008 I had moved to CA and the AC struggled with the warmer temps. The ac would barely blow cold. I had to take my car in to get the transmission rebuilt at the dealer so I had them check the AC at the same time. I was told there was a leak something about the evaporator so they replaced that and recharged the AC. As of today it works okay. Ford says it's not uncommon for a car with over 40k and going on 3 years old, but I don't believe that either. They also played off the transmission repair as being normal for the automatic transmission. I bought the top of the line focus in 2006 and I have had nothing but problems.

A/C gradually stopped working the previous summer, but then in winter you don't use it, so I didn't think about it, the first warm days in 2007, there was nothing but hot air coming out of the A/C. Took it in to the dealership and they added a fluorescent dye to the refrigerant and said that if the A/C stopped working again to bring it in. It was fixed (I took it in in May, when the weather was just starting to warm up) but as the days got hotter and more humid it was harder to tell if the A/C was having the same problem again or if it was just the weather. I will have to check in late Spring/Summer of 2008 to see.