Air Conditioner Noise

I've tried to search on "AC" and "A/C" and various permutations of "air conditioner" but haven't found anything on this, so here goes:

I have a 4-cylinder 2.7L 2008 with manual transmission. Lately it has been very hot here in California, and in the morning, just as I start moving out, I've turned on the AC by pressing the AC button. The second I do I hear a quick grinding noise from under the hood and a momentary deceleration, both of which go away within a second.

This is all done at low speed in first gear.

I'm guessing that it's the AC being engaged by the engine, but I wanted to check to see if it was normal. It seems not very elegantly engineered if you can feel the deceleration and the noise, but I'm okay with it if it's not a problem. What do you think?

 

My truck do that kind of noise when i turn on the ac..... its a v6 auto...it happens right when i start driving and turn the ac on....hope that helps

 

Thanks guys. It's nice to know I'm not the only one, and I'll give the WD-40 thing a try. What would the world be without WD-40.

 

My new truck did the exact same thing yesterday. I consider these little quirks part of the break in. I plan on refraining from worrying about it or trying to do minor little fixes like the WD40 squirt. I think if it was a big problem Toyota would have fixed it since we are now in the 4th year of production on this truck.

 

I also have the exact same issue with my truck. I think it is somehow related to the air condioner or the air conditioner compressor.

I have searched other websites such as toyotanation.com, and it seems to be a common issue. It was difficult to search since a lot of the posts were titled "noise" "weird noise" "grinding" etc. You would think people would title their posts with the words 'air conditioning'... it would make searching easier.

But anyway, it is a common issue. However, I could not find any definitive ANSWER to the issue. Frustrating to read dozens of scattered posts, but no answers.

As for me, I'm just going to live with it, unless it breaks or whatever. I have a friend who's truck has been doing it for a couple of years.

 

Yeah, I decided to live with it. I didn't do the WD-40 thing.

It's almost comforting now. It kind of lets me know that I'm all set to go:

"Atomic Batteries to Power!"*

"Turbine to Speed!"*

"Air Conditioner to Grind!"

Vooooosh! We're off.



* Old Batman TV show reference for you youngin's

 

my truck does this exact thing when i first crank it up. it seems it's worse when it's hot out.

 

I also have been having this issue with my truck for the past 4 months now. It is extremely irritating to fire up your engine, and when the compressor clutch is engaged a horrible grinding/grunting noise is given in return..

I'll be taking it to the dealer as soon as I get some time and see if the techs can figure this one out.

 

never had that problem out of my 05 but it almost sound to me that the bearings might have a rough spot on them

 

Has anyone gotten any answers on this problem? (Hi, I'm Craig) I joined just so I could search and talk about this. I Have an 06 4cyl, bought new, that does the same thing. I've had this issue before and my local dealership replaced the compressor. Six months later and it's doing the same thing, this time, I'm out of warranty. Imagine that?

 

As far as I can tell, the answer is "you'll have that". Mine is still doing it, and it happens so much I hardly even notice anymore. My personal opinion is that it's just workman-like design without any finesse. I think it'll be fine... just a little annoying.

 

not very elegantly engineered


Buy a RidgeLine

 

I decided to take my truck to the Toyota dealer today to have this noise checked out. Then I could make an appointment for next week. So I drive the truck about 3 miles, straight there in the blazing heat with the air off, so I can demo the noise on initial startup. Of course when I turn on the A/C on for the service rep there is no noise. So I end up talking to the service manager for a while about the problem and he seems to think it’s the belt slipping a bit because the belt has maybe stretched a bit from sitting overnight, or in my case a few days, since I don’t drive the truck that much. The belt is always under tension from the tensioner so maybe this makes sense, or at least it did when he explained it. WTF

 

I should add that I tested the air on the way back home and it seems to blow cold enough. My first Toyota, an 86, blew so cold that I had to move the temperature lever toward the warm setting even on the lowest fan setting. But as I understand it the new type of “Freon” doesn’t run as cold.

 

For those that hear the noise when you crank the truck over, would you describe it as kind of a boom noise?

Cause I get this on startup sometimes. I was thinking it's the AC clutch/pullies as well. Almost sounds like something shifting and knocking into something in the engine bay. My K&N bracket was loose and figured that's what the noise was but it's still there. Hasn't done it in the last week though.

 

I would describe it as a sharp quick grinding noise or low pitched screech.

 

Anyone notice their MPG going down dramatically with ac on? Feels like its dragging on my engine, IE slower acceleration etc.

 

sounds like a cat coughing a furball into the toilet . stealership says its normal... so i said " like the leaf spring clack i'm here for?" .....theres 2 fixes to make a great truck better