Ac compressor ?'s

[Devon Harley]

Hey guys wondering how a compressor blows the front seal going on three times in a month grrr.

 

[Devon Harley]

I am currently fighting to get another life time compressor as they say it's my fault. I have the papers were I paid a certified shop to install this thing so that way I didn't run into this problem. I am very upset I spent all this money for somthing that's been braking more than its been used. I usually do all my own work but with what I paid for the whole system I wasn't gonna take a chance. I just want it to work I recharged it when I bought it cheap can do it yourself worked better than all new stuff hands down. When I would get into a idling truck after 5-10 min it was freezing. now it just gets cold after driving an stops blowing cold as I slow down. (since fixed) also the low pressure switch is kicking off again tonight bottom side of compressor is soaked again so it blew same spot three times. I have been told this does not ever happen an only charging it over a good few pounds will do it. I personally over saw the project as no one touchs my truck period (bad expierence with shady mechanics). My truck needed a new motor two years ago lol still running strong daily driver. Anyways the line were blew out with nitrogen and oils were filled to spec an so on lubed each o ring all of it was done right to my thought I'm not a ac specialist but I did research it here.

 

[cpdenton]

Was the orifice tube changed ever? If it gets plugged up with gunk, it can cause the high side pressures to be too high, thus blowing seals out.

Did you see the gauges on the truck? If so, what were e high side and low side pressure readings?

 

[Devon Harley]

I have the pressures wrote down at work. I will post them tomorrow. Yes orifice tube was changed my compressor grenaded I replace compressor or tube condenser the round low side can forgot name at moment low side switch an a wheel an fan switch not the regulater thing that's next an the wheel. But somthing doesn't make since. It was a roll around cart thing it was the real deal. They also installed die which doesn't work by the way they had 3d glasses an a light could not find anything as they were charging it again first time compressor hissing I touched the bottom an it was oily checked with light nothing. Also used sniffer nothing either lol.

 

[Devon Harley]

Should they pull the orifice tube an check it? To make sure they blew the lines out completly or not?

 

[chris142]

New compressors or rebuilts?

 

[RLDSL]

Clogged orifice tube , or defective fan clutch allowing high side head pressures to get WAY too high at idle speeds in traffic. There *should* be an overpressure valve on the hose manifold that spits all the refrigerant out of the thing instead of blowing out the compressor seal. Generally once an overpressure valve has been tripped, the thing is pretty much history, they usually wont hold normal pressure after that and need to be replaced.
Those little critters are one of the main reasons that I insist on installing electric pusher fans on everything around here in this insane heat that we have that I work on. aside from how much better it makes the ac work, regardeless of how lousy your factory fan clutch is functioning, they will prevent an overpressure situation from occouring in a healthy ac system and it happens all the time around here, even on newer cars with just a single e fan, without a dedicated ac backup, they are just as vulnerable.
When the first comp failed, did you install filters on the high pressure line before the orifice tube and the low pressure line before the compressor and flush touroughly ? if not, then its probably just junk in the orifice tube, of so, then check the overpressure valve bit.,

 

[RLDSL]

I went back and read these more carefully after getting a bite to eat, If you grenaded the first comp, then I can just about guarantee that the orifice is clogged and you popped the overpressure valve. As mentioned, those thingsa generally are only good for one blow off and need to be replaced so you wouldnt get a leak reading with a sniffer at the front seal, but even if the dealer takes it back, the compressor supplier may kick it back to them and the dealer may charge it back to you for trying to pull a scam on them. REad your warranty. There should be something in there about installing filters in the lines . It is near impossible to completely flush a condensor, even layed flat, You still need to install a filter in the line between it and the orifice tube at bare minimum and should put one in the return line between the accumulator and compressor . Some compressors require just the first for warranty and some require both. My regular compressor supplier requires both, to which I oblige gladly. It only takes a few minutes to install a couple of filters andsaves endless headaches.

I have so much fan backup on the custom ac system on my truck that i dont even have a blowoff valve on the thing, but seriously would not reccomend anyone else trying that... unless you can picture the schrapnel from over 500psi inside a copper snake tear assing through your hood and front of your engine

One other place to check for fast leakage and false charge readings that will seriously fake you out on these trucks, is the r134a adapter fitting that is screwed onto the original r12 shrader port at the accumulator . It is so common and bad to the point where i use an r12 hose to charge the things and keep r134a adapter fittings for ea truck just to have on hand to be legal, but they all fit poorly and seem to leak and do not depress the inner shrader properly so it is very common to get false readings from the gauges ( one of these days I'm going to spend a few hours opening boxes in the parts store and find an accumulator/pipe setup that will fit our trucks and not leak with r134a.. I guess that would be a good hot day project )

What bothers me is if they TRUELY went over the thing properly with a sniffer, there is no way in hell that they would not have found where it was leaking out unless the sniffer was a total piece of kung fu crap . I believe the spec on my snappy sniffer on high is .05 oz per yr, that means it will detect leaks so small that they will take 10 years to loose 1/2 oz, but you cant just go waving the thing around all willy nilly, you have to hold the tip in place at each joint and VERY SLOWLY move it around the joint , after giving the machine time to ingest an ample sample from each spot . . It is very tedious, but you will NOT come up empty handed when properly operating a sniffer. Dye on the other hand, requires a fairly large leak and a good amount of pressure behind it and is fairly useless for small suction side leaks

 

[rhkcommander]

Its not as comon now but you can repair compressors... Seal is easy if your mindful

 

[Sw1tchfoot]

I just got my A/C working this summer and my THIRD compressor is on it's way. The first one was bad out of the box, the clutch sounded like a blender. It was a nightmare trying to get Rockauto to accept the return on that. The second one I bought from Amazon, everything worked great with ice cold temps. I pulled a vacuum, then charged by weight, about 2.7 lbs of R134A on my digital scale. The high side pressures sitting there at idle were about 280 psi and it was about 95 degrees that day. Everything was new. New red orifice tube, condenser, evap, drier/accumulator, low pressure cut-out switch, plus the liquid, discharge, and suction lines with 8-oz of PAG46 oil placed in the system. The only parts I got used were those two aluminum pieces that bolt to the top of the compressor, with the blow-off valve because I could not find them new.

Less than 1000 miles later and my a/c isn't blowing as cold.. still cool.. but not cold. I pop the hood and the clutch is wet, and there is oil scattered around.. including on the hood. It looks like the oil was making the belt slip, maybe the clutch too. I quit using the A/C and checked the charge several days later and it was already down to sub-10 psi (not running).

I don't know what you are buying, but I thought I would be smart and buy a Reman Four Seasons compressor online hoping they would be more reliable than the Autozone/O-Reilly crap. So much for that. I'll pull the orifice when the third compressor shows up just to double check it. I think we are simply suffering from a lack of quality control.. rather than bad fan clutches and clogged orifices.

 

[Devon Harley]

New compressors. High side 140 engine off low side around 40. Replaced the compress again recharged to 80%. My condenser is new. Fan clutch has 31k oem ford an failing. Replacing it an will report results. Thanks all for help. An thank you rdsl you got lots info! I wanna know more on your rear a/c.

 

[RLDSL]

New compressors rarely fail, in fact, it's a statical anomoly. repainted compressors ( oops, I mean REmans) however, have about as much luck or worse than grabbing one out of a boneyard, because the chain rebuilders dont actually rebuild them properly. When I worked at high end ac shop many moons ago , we realized that way back then and the boss had us scouring the better boneyards in the off season for good cores that we would have brought out and we would rebuild in shop to HIS standards which meant better than factory new, because he simply got tired of not being able to find a single supplier of rebuilt compressors in the whole stinking world that he would install and put his name behind, and with the kind of vehicles we were dealing with, that was important ( and back then there were no aftermarket new clone compressors and even rich folks would freak if you told them 12-1500 bucks just for a replacement compressor from the factory.. seems almost comical nowdays considering the average price of a repair job on a modern computer controlled vehicle

These days its insanity to use anything other than a new replacement.