I turn the air condition on after work and noticed a whining sound that increased as i accelerated, sounded just like a power steering pump whining. . I turn off the ac and the sound went away right away, The ac was not blowing cold. prior to this it was cold on the same day. . periodically the next two days i would turn it on and still the same, the clutch was engaging, until one time i turned it on and the noise was real loud more of a screaming sound. I turned off the ac and i took a minute to stop screaming. the clutch turns ok by hand , the car runs fine without the air on. the belt did not smell of burning rubber. Does this sound like a compressor failure? If it is what all should i change with the new compressor, this is a work car but still in good shape. I here its best to change the condenser too because parts of the failed compressor clog the holes. How hard is it to change this condenser? Are after market parts ok on this job. Rock auto has a package deal to include all the parts but it is not EOM stuff. Also with the air off my fan only operates after a certain temp. when the ac is on the fan runs continually so until i fix this is there a way to fool the fan to run continually because i'm in Florida and its hot out in stop and go traffic . Thanks in advance. Bob.

Sounds like a bad AC Compressor Clutch.... you can change just the clutch, but I have found you might as well replace the whole compressor because of the high cost of just the clutch (Unless, you can find a clutch for it at a junk yard, or Ebay, or so)....

Yeah, $128.00 for the clutch, $220 for the whole thing. ACDELCO.

This was your compressor starting to fail, and probably lost all of your R134a and most of your compressor oil at this point.

Still no compressor lube or R134a, and running dry.

Compressor guts gave out the rest of the way.

Probably because the extra drag from the guts destroying themselves bound the clutch a little.

Okay so the guts haven't given quite allllll the way out, but they're in bad shape and less-than 1RPM doesn't spin them fast enough to make their bad sounds.

AC pulley bearing is still good.

Got lucky the guts didn't give quite allllll the way out and seize the pulley.

Yup.

Yeah, you likely have junk all through the system. Metal particles from the destroying-itself compressor clog the tiny tubes in the condenser and never dissolve or wash away.

You should flush the rest of the system as well.

Not too bad, but you might have to take a bunch of plastic off the front of the car to do it.

Yep, I've had good luck, just be careful which aftermarket brand'* reputation you choose.

Assuming radiator fans here. Actually, the fan doesn't run continually, but rather, it runs when the AC compressor is engaged. In the case of your nearly-destroyed compressor, the compressor was commanded on until adequate pressure was achieved, and with this, the fan is commanded on at the same time. Since adequate pressure was never achieved, the fan stayed on continuously.

It should cycle on its own based on coolant temperature, unless something else is wrong with the car. It will let it get a bit warmer this way, but only a bit.

No prob!

• Thanks, I am going to wait, just dealt with a " reduced engine speed " issue and i am not in the mood to work on pulling an a/c and condenser in the middle of summer. , i did want to get these answers though so i can start to think of all i need when i finally do it and i wanted to make sure it was the compressor which i figured it was. My other issue was a accelerator pedal sensor which i replaced and then this a/c issue came the next day after solving that one. Its my work car so i have another one with ac for the weekends ( 2006 Altima i barely drive in the garage ). Thanks again for the quick response. Bob. BTW my car does seem to get hot in traffic so i believe i can unplug the wires at the temp sensor to run the fan all the time but i figured that would produce an engine light so ill probably leave it be.

. . . an engine light and it won't run right because it doesn't know its own temperature. If by "hot" you mean the gauge goes up, I'd get some telemetry from the PCM to see how hot it is really getting. The gauge is usually not very accurate. When you have a chance, let it idle "hot" and see if the fan comes on at a certain point. My bet is that it does, just a little later than the temp gauge would prefer.

Yes, the fans do come on when gauge is between above one half and the next mark, thats all i am going by and when the ac is on it never goes that hot so i just thought why not just run the fans in the summer but i understand the issue of the computer not being able to read it if i try so ill just leave it alone. I have always been a proponent of keeping engines cool, in the old days we would pull the thermostats in the summer time to cool things off , i know people argue that doesn't work but i always thought i did make things run cooler doing that. Anyway after the fans turn on the gauge goes back to below half way like it looks when the ac is on. Then it slowly goes up, i am driving in the city, one stop light after another when i am on the high way i never see any issues with it getting hot. I am not talking about over heating, just hot.

Yeah this is probably a difference of five or ten degrees. As long as it'* controlled when it gets there then it'* good. It'* the difference between when the thermostat opens (allowing the radiator to disperse heat to whatever air flow is there) and when the PCM says "yeah there'* not enough air flow there, fan time!". This conserves wear and tear on the fans, lowers noise, and reduces load on the electrical system.

Yeah they do run cooler this way, but they will often never warm up. In the hot part of Florida this wouldn't be much of an issue. The flip side is the engine/radiator combos back then didn't manage heat as well so every little bit helps, and there were less other things that became unhappy as a result.

Yeah this is probably like 5-10 degrees difference. Not a big deal. I have a few that do the same thing. A lot of Fords with the gauge show the same temperature within a "safe range" of operation, then will go up when they get above that point. It eliminates this perceived visual for the driver, but the engine is going through the same thing.

It'* funny how in the olden days air conditioning would make cars run warmer, but now it makes them run slightly cooler.

Ok so i decided not to replace the ac right away but on certain days i need my defrost, What is the best way to disable my ac clutch and/or ac compressor so that when i turn the defrost on my compressor will not be activated. Remember when activated a loud screaming sound comes from what i believe is the torn up compressor.

The clutch pigtail wiring connector can be removed. Check make sure it is secured, unable to make contact with rotating parts.