A/C issues

[W4L3SY]

hey guys,
of recent, my a/c compressor seems to be slowing down after about 30 seconds of being turned on, and by slowing down i mean it will do one full revolution to approx five full revolutions of the ac belt, and then stops blowing cool air, i have checked the belt tension, that is fine.
the clutch is engaging correctly.

Any help would be great!

Thanks in advance

[Jxw]

it's geared via the size of the pulleys it's not meant to be 1:1 per belt revolution
if the compressor is turning less and you can see this and the engine rpm isn't changing then the clutch is slipping, either that is on it's way out or the compressor bearings are.....

[W4L3SY]

Thanks mate, yeah I didn't discribe it very well, the belt is spinning over the compressor pully, slipping as such...if bearings need replacing is that an easy job, can it b done? Of do I need to replace the whole compressor?

[Jxw]

the clutch should be reasonably easy to replace without having to degas and remove the compressor as a first step to rule out a fault there....

if it's the compressor at fault, i'd replace the compressor rather than mess about trying to reco it, would need to be degassed and regassed though, so maybe a job for an ac specialist.

no nasty noises coming from it at all?

[wamboin23]

before you go replacing things, check, with the a/c turned on, that you are getting over 12v to the clutch. might just be the voltage isn't high enough to pull the clutch in hard enough.

[olden holden]

check the nut on the front of the a/c clutch as they some times work loose

[aussie4life11]

i think what hes tryin to say is the belt moves but the pulley on the aircon doesnt. correct me if im wrong but thats how i read it

[Jxw]

yeah aussie, that's about it, starts out fine then 30 seconds or so later slows down compared to the belt movement.

[W4L3SY]

Yeah Aussie and jxw, that's correct, the clutch is working, but almost as the the pulley is seizing up, nah no strange noise, apart from belt squeal.

[Jxw]

with the engine off(you really don't want to lose fingers to the belt), can you easily turn the clutch/front of the compressor by hand? there will be some resistance but it should turn reasonably easy and not bind/grip to much. Not the pulley the belt is on.

[W4L3SY]

hey guys,

yeah i can turn the centre part of the air con pulley by hand with little resistance, i have uploaded a short vid of this to show you what it is doing


you will see on the video that the centre part of the pulley is stopping at one point, this is also the only point that it is showing any resistance when spinning by hand.

5 ltr A/C compressor - YouTube

[Jxw]

as wamboin said check the voltage at the wire/plug with the ac on, just strange that it works ok for 30 seconds and then slips.

another thing to maybe try is unplug the clutch wire and run a wire straight to the battery +ve with the engine running, if it's a voltage problem a direct feed should engage it properly.