Did my A/C Clutch just die on me?
 

Hey guys,

Drove to work this morning and A/C worked fine. Drove home and A/C was blowing hot air :(

Removed the bumper to make sure the lines were still good (I have stock intakes, but that was my first concern anyway). Seems fine, so I consulted the FSM and saw that theres a section on "Auto Active Test" where you open the door, press the door sensor a few times and what not. It cycles through a couple of self tests and one of them is the A/C compressor clutch on > off 5 times.

Please see video, you see the clutch "move" in and out maybe half cm each time. is this correct?

If I can see my clutch without taking the bumper off and you'll tell me what page of the FSM the test procedure is on, I'll run out in the garage and check. It sounds normal, but I'm not sure how far it should move.

you'd have to at least have the undershroud off :(

basically, you switch the ignition to on > then switch it off > switch on > within 20 sec, press driver side door switch 10 times > then within 10 sec, turn off the ignition. when you do this, you need to make sure your hood is closed, and windshield wipers are UP.

the car will go through diagnostics, where the wipers will sweep 5x, HID's will fire, then switch to high beams 5x, then AC clutch engage and disengage 5x, then radiator fan will engage, disengage too

guess ill schedule an appointment. i have about 4 days left on my 3 yr warranty!

Hi Chops,
The AC Clutch is controlled by the two things, the presence of enough refrigerant to compress (no leak correct pressure) pressure sensor controls this and CAN be bad but usually not, and the A/C solenoid signal activated by A/C on switch in cabin, if there is enough A/C refrigerant to allow the clutch to activate then there is enough to cool but not ideally. However, you need to crank the car and turn on AC to a cold setting then watch the compressor and make sure it turns on and stays on for a while, if it cycles on and off rapidly every few seconds, then the refrig. is low, if it never comes on the refrig. is gone (leak). That's the case I 've seen in 95% of the failures. 1% have been bad clutch, a few of them have been frozen compressor (belt jumps off when A/C cuts on or engine dies).

That's about it.

thanks fountainhead, looks like the clutch either broke, or the compressor froze. dropped it off at the stealership this morning with 3 days left on the warranty!

If you happen to need another one I'll sell you mine for a hell of a deal?