Problematic A/C Compressor?

[95JTalonTSI]

Okay long story short: Month ago heard strange rattling clicking noise during cold start ups.The rattling noise would fade away if not completely dissapear when the car was sufficiently warmed up. The performance of the car wouldn't seemed to be affected at all except for a rattling annoying sound. After much analyzing, i tried a few times during the cold start ups where I would turn the a/c on to see if the sound was still present. To my suprise the sound disappeared when teh compressor would "click" on. Suddenly after a few seconds of running the a/c the sound would come back, becuase the compressor and the a/c fan would mysteriously shut off. So I re-attempt to turn the a/c back on to hear if the A/c compressor engages and it doesn't. I do this multiple times, but still it doesn't engage. So I wait until the car warms up to retry the a/c. Sure enough as soon as the rattling/clicking sound disappears, I am able once again to turn the a/c on and hear the compressor actually engaging. What could be causing the A/c to shut it self off during cold operation, and allow this rattling sound to be present until warm temp. operations? The clutch? Electrical? All I can think of is to replace the compressor completely. IMO i believe its the compressor clutch crapping out. The car is a 95 with 123k on the compressor. What do you guys think? thanx for all insight.

Isn't the a/c fan and compressor able to come during cold start up conditions? Or is it controlled through CTS? or some heated relay?


john

 

[Defiant]

I think your AC is fine, and that your harmonic balancer is blown.

 

[95JTalonTSI]

hmmm, i'll recheck the crank pulley, but I've had one go out on me before, and all it did was a lot of squeeling before it snapped in two. When this happened before, i notice these symptoms displayed now are not similar, thus im ruling out the harmonic balanacer. However after further experimenting, I found that the A/c is just coming on and off, and under warm temp operation, i can feel the ac and hear the compressor click on , but also click off, on off on,, etc. I really think its the compressor. More feed back please. Or maybe low on freon as well, but the clutch on the a/c could be definitely going out.

john