AC Clutch Failure - How to fix! (blinking light, squealing)

I just did this repair on my 2010. On one of the hottest days of the year in the Northwest, I got the blinking ac light and then a squeal of death. Found this thread and ordered some snap ring pliers and the clutch off ebay. (I don't normally buy off ebay.) Drove around with no AC and could not roll down the winders because of the smoke in the air. Got the parts and replaced the parts.

The hardest part for me was the electrical connector screw. It was seized and I had to use small vice grips to get that out.
I also had a hell of a time getting the pully off. Snap ring came out easy, but I could not get the pully to come off. I tried prying it off and tapping with a hammer. It ended up that I was not pulling the pully straight out off the compressor. After a break and a night's sleep, I got my gloves on and got a good even hand-hold on the pully. I then pulled straight out and it moved. I was able to jiggle it back and forth until it came out. The rest was easy.

Thanks for this post! Saved me a lot of money, but now it is raining for the first time in weeks and the smoke and heat are gone. But I got AC again, when I do end up needing it.

 

Subbed

 

Just did this to my 2011 4 cylinder and used this part https://www.amazon.com/Compressor-CLUTCH-Toyota-Tacoma-2005-2014/dp/B06XNQCW3D

I started having the same issue with a loud squeak, bad smell, and flashing A/C light when turning on the defrost or the A/C. Figured a $45 part was worth a shot before getting gouged for $1200 at the shop for a new compressor. I don’t have a ton of technical experience working with cars but have done a decent amount of work on my own cars over the years. This was by far one of the easiest projects I’ve tackled. I left the belt on and it took me about 45 minutes with me taking my time so I didn’t do anything wrong. Once I got the old plate off it was almost identical to the pictures he posted, a big gob of rubber stuck to the piece that is still attached. Plucked it off with my fingers and used a clean rag to rub the remaining rubber off. Slapped the new one on with the old spacers as tight as it would go and fired up the truck. Boom worked like a charm and now I’ve got my defrost back which is working phenomenally and is vital as the frost starts to hit here in VT. Thanks for the detailed instructions and for saving me some serious money.

 

Just ordered a replacement hub myself. The 8mm bolt is in rough shape (I live in MN) and will have to use an extractor tool. What are the chances someone knows what size the bolt is for a replacement?

TIA!

 

So is the verdict if the clutch spins with the belt off the clutch is bad? My clutch spins and has a groaning sound with the belt off. It’s an 06 v6 so I’m assuming the clutch is different? Would I be better off replacing just the clutch or do I NEED to do the compressor as well? I’ll have to evacuate the lines if I do the compressor and if I can get away with not doing it I’d love that.

 

I just did the AC Comp hub fix on a 2006 TRD for the blinking AC light, worked great and i have cool air again, thanks OP

 

not sure if people are using this thread in 2021 but i’ve noticed a clunk noise when i start my AC and after a couple seconds the clunk goes away. i’ve noticed it mostly after the AC hasn’t been used for a few days. once the AC has been turned on the AC can be turned off and back on and the clunk doesn’t occur. but if you turn the AC off for a couple days and then on i hear the clunk for a couple seconds then it goes away.

i’ve been researching this issue and first thought it was the AC compressor either having too much pag oil and slugging OR too little pag oil and running dry.

the AC system is factory and the refrigerant was evacuated last summer and the correct refrigerant was charged at 22oz for 2nd gen tacomas. no pag oil was recovered during evac in the bottle and no pag oil was added back. i asked how much refrigerant and pag oil was going back in and AC tech stated 22oz is what tacomas call for and the AC tech said ‘sometimes we don’t get pag oil when we evacuate because the pag oil stays in the compressor and condenser and evaporator mostly’ but i’m not a AC expert so i don’t know this is is true or not for AC evac.

so i presume the AC tech was correct and the correct pag oil type and volume is in my AC system, but then my theory on too much or too little pag oil would not be accurate.

which leads me to this post talking mostly about AC clutch assembly (clutch hub, clutch face and bearing, clutch magnet) and also in this post about compressor failures, both causing different lists of symptoms.

clutch assembly failure symptoms seem to be mostly AC light blinking and burned rubber smell. which i did have burned rubber smell one time when starting AC on.

compressor failure seems to be little more vague. my AC pressures on high and low side are LOW at 40psi and HIGH at 200psi so that looks like the compressor is operating correctly.

i did an inspection on the AC clutch and observed it’s condition from the outside NOT taking the 8mm bolt out, just looking at the rubber. this rubber degrading state inside the clutch hub appears to be the main problem which AC clutch failure. although i do not see anything in this post saying owners observed clunk on AC start up and hearing a clunk for a couple seconds then it goes away.

no i am unsure if this clunk when turning on the AC is due to the AC clutch.

i’ll try to attach a pic of the AC clutch hub and rubber from the outside, still mounted to rhe AC compressor. the clutch and clutch hub rubber appear to be in good condition.

i did take a picture of the AC clutch air gap, the distance between the AC clutch hun and the AC pulley as this air gap is important for proper AC clutch engagement and disengagement.

i’ll see if i can attach that air gap picture as the air gap is about the size of a piece of paper which could be too small, maybe due to worn AC clutch surfaces.

i am looking into a replacement AC clutch assembly and a AC compressor although i’m not sure yet which may be causing the clunk on AC startup yet. it appears the clutch and compressor commonly come together on new AC compressors also which may just replace both parts at the same time but i would rather not just start replacing parts unless i’m able to determine which part has actually failed. replacing parts to see if that fixes a problem without confirming the failed part is not a wise troubleshooting method.

not being a AC expert though my troubleshooting hasn’t uncovered much evidence to determine what parts are failing or in a degraded state.

advice or suggestions from owners having similar situation would be helpful.

 

and just to be clear although my AC made a screeching sound on start up one time for a couple seconds (this was unlike the regular clunk sound for a couple seconds) and there was burned rubber smell, my AC dash light didn’t blink. BUT i also didn’t look at my AC dash light when it happened cause i was looking under the hood so it’s possible the light COULD have been blinking at this time.

i suspect a blinking AC dash light is due to - the AC clutch FAILING which causes the AC compressor to not rotate as designed which the AC speed sensor on the bottom of the AC compressor sends a signal to the AC amplifier, which is the stand alone AC computer in the dash, and the amp shuts down the AC system and flashes the AC ON led light indicating there’s a problem with the AC system.

i make this note cause i had to research how the AC clutch failing was setting off the AC blinking light but there are no sensors on the AC clutch, so i tried to understand how they are related.

 

Just my 07 Tac has same issue (A/C light flashing) but not sure is caused on this one ?
Just try to rotate the clutch hub (when the engine off) it's can be rotated ，is this nromally ?

Thanks.

 

I get same issue for the A/C light flash , but not sure is caused on clutch hub or not ?
Did you remember can you turn by hand in red circuit when the car off ?

Because i can turn it by hand when the car is off , and whhen the A/C light flashing , i can find the clutch hub was not spin with the elt pulley ，is that normally ?


Thanks.

 

It will spin by hand with the vehicle not running.

 

noted and thanks.

 

Just replaced my clutch from eBay. Just to clarify, when the A/C is disengaged/off, the clutch should not spin correct? It seems the metal is worn a little unevenly so taking measurements for the clearance would probably be a bust. I have it set right now where when its off it usually doesn't spin but it catches and does half a rotation every so often. I think its just the rust and being old that the mating surfaces aren't even. Hopefully it wears down a little and then it should be as close as it can get without being engaged all the time. I also just drive with the A/C on all the time unless its winter so.....

 

Good day. I just signed up to say thanks very much for this post. I've been troubleshooting this for hours and just happened across this guide.
I was confused because the outside of the clutch was spinning but the center was only stuttering around and singing the song of it's people.
You've saved me a lot of work, headaches and maybe even busted knuckles.

 

OK just did this job on my 2013 4 cyl Tacoma by following the guidelines in this thread. For a 4 cylinder this is what I found to be easiest. Remove the fasteners for the fan shroud and push it up closer to the block. Then unbolt the fan from the fan clutch. This gives enough room to do the whole job from the top and enough room to grab the inner ring of the clutch with vise grips.
I hadn't first put the front tires up on ramps and removed the skid plate. There isn't enough room in there to do the job with the fan in place. After removing the fan it was much easier to do the job from the top and didn't even need to bother with the ramps and skid plate.
It's a pretty easy job and my A/C is working fine again.

 

Easiest to remove the skid plate and A/C compressor is right there. Took me longer to remove the rusty skid plate bolts than to replace the hub. Very thankful to have found this… well done N75!

 

Had the squeal, then AC light flash. Found this thread and ordered the replacement clutch hub for the front. I did not have an easy time getting the 8mm bolt out despite using vice grips to try and hold the center from spinning then I finally remembered I Owned a pneumatic ratchet. Lol That got the bolt out with the help of a buddy holding onto the hub with an oil wrench from the top down. New bolt going back in has a 10mm head but threads were the same. Used the same spacers and all is good.

No wonder it failed. Big chunky bit of rubber. Thanks OP and everyone else. AC is working again.

 

This forum just saved me big bucks! I put the new hub on this morning and now the A/C is working great again! I went at it from the top like the original post said. I loosened the fan shroud (2) 10mm bolts and (10) plastic clips and then pushed it back out of the way. Then I removed the fan itself (4) 10mm nuts. The vice grips worked great in removing the old clutch hub. My new hub didn't come with spacers, so I just reused the old ones. Took me a little over an hour to do. Hopefully this fix lasts a good, long time...

Tom

 

Not sure if you ever fixed this but I had your exact symptoms. (I did have a blinking AC light very briefly one day but that went away.

I replaced the entire clutch this evening. Hopefully it fixes my think on start up.

 

Has anyone had an odd noise but their A/C is still functional? I’m trying to further diagnose this issue I’m having.

I was going to try and replace the clutch hub anyway since the part is only $20.

https://youtube.com/shorts/F8bW5KPt7zs?feature=share

It has started doing it even with the clutch not engaged. When I took this video yesterday it was only faint when the clutch wasn’t engaged.

I was going to take it apart today and see if there is a rubber blob in there that I’m seeing in other pictures.

thanks