Back to Ohio may require the defrost to work. If it is low, I am considering a can of refrigerant to fill it for the way home. With the whining noise coming from the engine area when the compressor is engaged, I am curious if the compressor can make the trip.
Probably a good idea. A recharging with a kit is pretty easy to do, just look for a few YouTube videos on how to do it. I wouldn't get a recharge kit with sealant though if you need to get it fixed down the line by the dealer under warranty.
If its on warranty take it in ASAP and have Ford repair it for free. Good luck on limping it back to Ohio and keep a can of refrigerant with you in case it leaks out. At least you will only need Heat there.I am down in Florida on vacation and started having some trouble with defrost setting working correctly. I also have a whining sound almost like a faint turbo whine that started at the same time. A/C is working intermittently and the whining sound seems to only happen when the A/C compressor is engaged. I am thinking that this looks like the schrader valve could be leaking on my 17GT and I now have low refrigerant. Can someone please confirm that this is what leaking refrigerant would look like? Google images is not much help on this and I m hoping someone else has seen this. In addition is this the high pressure side (Service port)?
Living in Phoenix I have no idea how important defrost is where it freezes, but doesn't A/C also dry the air used for defrost?
Yes it does, by cooling down the evaporator which then freezes the moisture on the evaporator's surfaces (ie, dries out the air in the cabin).
You may just be lucky. Mine did the same thing in the summer of 2016. Typical symptoms. Since so much is computer controlled, I disconnected the battery for a few hours (however long something else I was doing took) before taking it to the dealer. When I reconnected the battery, the AC worked fine and has continued to do so. So in my case (and hopefully yours), it was a temporary software problem fixed by a cold boot.
Doubt Ford would help out ... but can't hurt to contact them and try since it's a well known issue.
Call the Ford 800# and ask for a Supervisor, then explain your concern... this is a well known issue within Ford, as they have the TSB on it.... so even if they won’t cover the whole repair, you may get lucky and they’ll cover most of the cost (some in this very thread have had “help” by calling where they did not have to pay full repair cost).
All the information and answers to your questions are buried in this thread... Call Ford and see what they can do outside of warranty... If not, be prepared to pony up (no pun intended) around $1500 just for evap core replacement.