I was driving in traffic when my ac cut out. Now it only works when I'm driving not on idle and for some reason my coolant temperature gets really hot really quickly. For example it takes my coolant 5min to go from 30 to 116 on idle. And I also just got an engine light (haven't checked what it is yet)....anyone know what it can be???

 

Sounds like this might be all related to that check engine light. Get that checked out and you will most likely find out the reason for everything going wrong.

 

go get scanned and see what codes your car is throwing. then go from there

 

Could be your thermostat, but you won't know until you check the codes being thrown.

I had to replace my thermostat at about 50k miles because it was doing the same thing except the temp would eventually zero out (--) instead of showing a temp. Anyways, I made sure not to put that crappy Dex-cool back in there because that stuff will eat away the rubber gasket on the thermostat.

 

What are your coolant temps looking like when you stop? Sounds to me like the fans aren't kicking on. Park the car when the coolant temps are below the fan on temp with the AC on. The fans should always be running when the ac is on and the car is parked. Check your fuses.

Does anyone know if the fans will still kick on if you cold start the car and turn on the AC while it's still in open loop? Also, in order for this test to work, we need to know what the fan on temp is. Anyone know that one? Sorry I'm lazy and don't feel like looking it up, and I'm at work so I can't do the test right now.

 

Honestly sounds like the high side or low side is getting low at idle so when cruising pressure is high enough due to the ac clutch spinning much faster revolutions ..

 

fans probably aren't kicking on........start the car, turn the a/c on and see if the cooling fans come on. Also, low speed fans will kick on at appx 223 degrees unless you have it tuned to come on sooner.

 

coolant temps going up and AC not working most likely means you cooling fans aren't kicking on. when you turn your AC on it forces the coolant fan on (air need to move across the condensor for the AC system to cool).