AC went out - troubleshooting?

[MGMorden]

On my 2012 Chevy Sonic (1.8 L) the air conditioner suddenly stopped working yesterday. I'm trying to figure out what's wrong with it.

The radiator fan fuse was blown - I'm guessing that was either concurrent or recent as the car hasn't overheated, though the last few times I've driven it have been open highway so it had plenty of air coming in due to speed.

I replaced that and the radiator fan is engaging again. No other fuses appear to be blown.

Refrigerant levels are where they are supposed to be. I put a multimeter on the AC clutch and its getting no power to engage. If I bypass the relay it'll switch on and blow cold, but the relay itself isn't defective (it's just not getting a signal to engage).

The only thing I can think to change out at this point is the ambient temperature sensor. Is there anything else you guys can think to check on to see what exactly is up with it?

Thanks for any advice.

 

[EzekeiL]

This might not be it, but I had lost my outside temperature sensor because...I actually don't remember...but wires were just exposed and if those wires got wet it wouldnt turn on the AC compressor because it was reading the outside temperature as like -40. Definitely if the temperature sensor is bad it will keep your ac from turning on.

Just for clarification I'm referring to the temperature sensor that sticks onto the front grill of the car.

 

[EzekeiL]

Oh, and to fix it I just taped up the wires cause I just didn't care enough to get a new sensor and re wire it haha works like a charm

 

[MGMorden]

Thanks - I have a new outside temp sensor that I ordered as some other people mentioned that, but the AC actually started working after the battery terminal was disconnected and reconnected. Unfortunately after running for about another 20 minutes the cooling fan fuse blew again so I think that fan is bad. I should have a new one here tomorrow to put in and hopefully that should take care of it. That's the 2nd cooling fan I will have put in this car. This last one lasted about 30k miles which isn't an instant death but certainly less than I would have expected.