Volvo AC Compressor Control Valve - Genuine Volvo 31305844

I'm so happy I bought this and replaced it. It's a relatively easy replacement and it completely fixed my A/C problem of blowing sort of cool and not cooling at all intermittently to consistently blowing cold. Try this before buying a whole new compressor, it's more likely to be a bad control valve.

I’ve had ac issues, where at an idle I’d loose the cold ac air inside in the car. No codes, nothing out of the ordinary in vida. Read some stuff online about how this sensor can affect the ac system. Took a gamble and put the new part in. Not saying it’s everyone who has ac problems, problem. But in my case it was a cheap gamble before replacing the compressor.

My 2008 Volvo XC-90 has twice had that common problem where the AC won't get cold until after 15 mins of driving, and then won't stay cold in stop & go traffic. The first time, before I found this site, I brought it to a local shop and they charged me nearly $2K to replace the compressor and everything. Then the problem happens again 4 years later, but this time I did more research and learned that it was probably just this pressure switch solenoid failing. It makes sense - if the compressor can eventually put enough pressure out to get things cold, then it must be somewhat functional. Switching this part is easier than I thought it would be - the only hassle is the refrigerant. I just bought a set of snap ring pliers, and used the one that has right-angle tips and squeezes to close. On my existing pressure switch, the snap ring was oriented with the holes facing directly right. I removed the air filter housing, which is just big, easy-to-handle plastic parts. The bottom of the housing just has a slide-mount slot that fits over a bolt that you don't have to touch. Just pull the thing up and out. With the air filter housing out of the way, I could put my hand there with the snap ring pliers and peek through from the front to line up the tips. There's a wiring harness that was hard to reach to unplug, but looking closely at it and and looking at the parts that came in this package, there's a little white plastic mounting bracket that is replaced, so I just pulled the wiring harness straight away from the compressor to yank it free so that I could unplug the old pressure switch with a little more room to work with. Then I twisted the pressure switch about a quarter turn using some pliers and a bit of residual pressure from the refrigerant helped pushed it out. Visually comparing the old solenoid and the new one, I could see that this genuine volvo part from FCP Euro had a little filter screen plastic piece on the opening that my old one did not have. My old one was also a bit thick with darkened oil around that hole, which was threaded like it was supposed to have that piece (I definitely checked inside the bore hole in the compressor to with a flashlight to make sure it wasn't left behind). I'm thinking maybe this is the problem and Volvo improved the part, or who knows what after-market brand the shop repaired mine with the first time - I can't find a sticker on it. I'm very pissed now that I let that shop take the original Volvo compressor that was probably perfectly fine. Putting the new part in, it didn't feel like I could push it in far enough, which then worried me that the little extra plastic piece on the tip was making it not fit my model of compressor, but it just took a bit more force and it snapped right in (also made sure to put some oil on the O-rings). Putting the new snap ring on was tricky, but snap rings just take practice I guess. Seemed like it would have been easier if I had put a little oil on the snap ring, but I didn't want to mess the with integrity of it, since it has to hold that pressure switch in under such high pressure. Installing this part was very quick compared to handling the refrigerant. I pulled vacuum and recharged the refrigerant and immediately saw the pressure moving in the right direction. Even after just two cans of refrigerant I had icy cold air blowing from the vents. Nothing is more satisfying after doing the repair yourself and not having to worry about financing a huge expense. Next I let the car bake in the hot sun in the driveway all day and tried it again - icy cold air measuring in the low 40s from the vents after only 10 seconds or so just idling the engine. Now this car is ready for another July in Texas.

OEM part, fits like it should. Was easy to replace . Took care of the problem where it would take the A/C 5 minutes of driving before it would cool. Now cools when turned on.

The pressure switch fixed my intermittent A/C problem. The A/C works great now.