AC Issue

About a week or so ago my ac shut itself off while driving. At the time when I would try to turn it back on, it would have a faint whistling noise, then shut itself off again after about 5 seconds and it wouldn’t blow any cold air. I didn’t know what the problem was so I figured maybe it was low on refrigerant so I bought a can along with a pressure gauge. The low end of my pressure reads in a range of 90-120psi, so the gauge might be wrong. Regardless something is pretty messed up. Then when I just tried to turn the ac on again, it makes a very loud noise almost like a belt rubbing. I don’t want to keep turning it on to listen because I don’t know what the problem is. Does anybody here know?

 

Are you familiar with where the AC compressor is located in the engine bay? If so, take a peak and see if you notice anything funky with the pulley/ drive belt. If you are hearing not normal mechanical sounds, it is most likely something mechanical! Good luck.

 

Could be issues with the A/C compressor OR the magnetic clutch on the compressor.

 

Don't just top off with can O joy from the auto parts store, get it to a good AC tech. If it is low, where did it go? You have a leak.

 

Hopefully, you used the right ac, 1234YF. Never just add refrigerant to a system without pressure gauges at a bare minimum. There is a pretty tight refrigearant weight specification that needs to be adhered to for the system to function properly. 90-120# on the low side with the compressor engaged? If so, you are overcharged. I can only imagine what the high side pressure is. The noise you hear now is the belt slipping as it is trying to engage the clutch and and is slipping on the pulley. You are potentially ruining any of the components in the ac system. I would not turn the AC or defrost on until you have the system professionally looked at

 

Interesting... This just happened to my 2019. My A/C magnetic clutch is failing and it will slip for a bit and make a noise and then disengage. The compressor itself spins freely with the belt removed. The weird part is that I couldn't find a Toyota replacement clutch anywhere. They all say "out of stock" and one parts dept told me it was discontinued. I ordered an aftermarket kit, but I wonder why Toyota doesn't have this part in stock. Is it a common problem?

 

Check your clutch, they are commonly failing, and can make noise when they fail. parts stores do not sell the clutch without the compressor too, but Ebay will sell the clutch alone for $50 and it takes 10 minutes to install, only a small wrench, no need to deal with freon, and do not even remove the belt. I have explained how to test and replace the clutch in a couple other related threads, and at least one member replaced his and reported that it was easy.

Consider searching for my other posts, in the past couple months, for details. Why throw out a whole compressor, and deal with freon when (if it is a bad clutch) it can be so easily fixed? Did mone years ago, and the repair held for many years.

BTW, I have never hears of any garage mechanic willing to replace only the clutch, so check it out and save $1,000 to $2,500, but fixing yourself.

Good luck!

 

This is exactly what I ended up doing. The failure point was the outer clutch plate. It has a rubber damper which failed. It sure beat changing the compressor, condenser, etc.

 

Yeah same deal here, shame I went through all the trouble of buying bunch of snap ring pliers, zipped the 8mm bolt off the outer cover/clutch, watched it fall to the ground in two pieces. Didn't bother going further and just zipped on the new AC cover after turning the compressor by hand to check that, reused the original spacer and now the AC works. Now if only the ADD was just as easy to take off, or the inner driver CV cup that took five hours to get off, even with a 10lbs slide hammer.