Air Conditioner problems of the 2012 Kia Motor Optima

Ac air conditioning unit: we have owned this vehicle since day 1. When utilizing ac air conditioning system during hot temperatures, fan begins to blow hot and humid air even at the lowest temperature setting. This has occurred throughout the time we have owned the vehicle and when reported to the dealership, they always state that the unit is working as it is designed. Their only solution is to bring it in each time it happens, which is absurd since it sometimes happens after they are closed. When I asked to diagnose the electrical system that correlates with the ac unit, they state that I would need to authorize the work and they do not know how long it would take. It could take 2 or 4 hours. At mechanical rate, that would be around $500. The most recent event was on August 28, 2019 when the car had approximately 88000 miles. I will taking it back for warranty issue on the clicking of the steering and will have them do their basic diagnosis because a tear own would be at my cost. Because I maintain my cars to keep them beyond 100k miles, I am concerned at the cost of an ac unit that has shown to not work properly. I was willing to live with loose steering issue, but this is more problematic since my wife is in menopause.

Air conditioning quits working while sitting still. Dangerous for children and others. Quits immediately at red light or in park.

I was stopped at a stoplight on a small street when a very loud hissing noise started coming from my air conditioner vents. As I accelerated through the intersection, the hissing noise got quieter, but as I stopped at the next intersection, it got louder. By the time I pulled into a nearby parking lot and stopped, my air conditioner was no longer blowing cold. The heat index is currently well over 100 degrees here, so driving home with no air could be very dangerous to many, especially if we had taken the car out of town, as we were intending to do just a few days later. Luckily, I was close to home and did not have my children with me, so I was able to endure the ride home, but others may not be so fortunate. After returning from my out of town trip (for which I had to use another car), I took my car to the dealership, who said originally that fixing a broken a/c was under warranty, but then he returned and said a rock or debris had put a hole in my condenser, and it would not be covered by my warranty. Instead, I would need to file an insurance claim or pay almost $900. I emphasized that this happened as I was sitting still at a small intersection, not while driving at a high speed. He claimed that it is possible it could've happened earlier but was just then under enough pressure to push through the hole. I have found hundreds of kia owners online with supposed "punctured compressors" that couldn't see the puncture or couldn't explain when or how it could have happened, and many in cars owned for less than a year. Kia has been receiving complaints about this since at least 2011 and refused to cover it in the warranty. This could be prevented with a cheap wire mesh to protect the compressor, but they have instead chosen to get paid $800+ each time it happens and leave customers vulnerable to being stranded in 100+ degree heat with no a/c due to faulty design.

I have had this vehicle for over 2 years now and have about 30,000 miles on it. I took this car to the dealership within a week after I bought it for problems with steering and it's inability to stay straight on the road without having to contunually adjust the steering wheel. I was told that there was nothing they could find wrong with it. But after finding this website, I now understand that I am not the first one to have this issue. Recently I have had an issue with the air conditioner. It works fine when the car is driving but when it is stopped or idling, the air suddenly blows warm air and doesn't start to blow cold until a few seconds after the car has started moving.