Loud squeal, burning smell, and now blinking A/C light.

He was pretty certain it was the clutch since that material (bushing) was hanging out. The compressor still turned correctly, no noise heard common to compressor failure, etc. He was going to check the system more, but I told him no need. Bad clutch makes the most sense looking at the evidence and symptoms. He said I could just replace the clutch, but it's best to just swap in a new compressor. Said the condenser might not be needed if it's just the clutch. I went ahead and ordered a condenser anyway, and will see what he says when he gets the old compressor off.

 

If the system still has a charge, you won't need the condenser. The dryer is hit or miss. Some do, some don't.

Thanks for the follow up.

 

Bad clutch is probably a good diagnosis.

You're AC light is blinking because the compressor is not spinning at the speed the computer thinks it should be.

There's an external speed sensor mounted to the side of the compressor on these trucks.

 

So it’s ok to drive and use ac just not at idle? Mine seems to have problems and make noise at idle but I haven’t noticed a problem yet actually driving

 

The dryer is built into the condenser on a second gen Tacoma. Crazy but that is how it is made.

 

Hey sorry to bring up an old thread but this exact same thing happened to me while on a trip to California from Pennsylvania towing my camper. Was sitting at idle in a parking lot heard a loud squeal, smelled burning rubber in the AC stop blowing cold air and the light started blinking. Did you ever figure out exactly what this was? I still have a service contract from the dealership but will fix it myself worst case scenario. Thanks in advance for

 

Most likely the A/C Compressor locked up causing the belt to slip over the (now locked up) pulley.

 

Pull the MG CLT Relay under the hood and you be able to drive without AC until you get it home as long as the pulley isn't damaged. You may also want to get a new belt.

 

In my experience this means it’s going to go bad eventually. Mine was doing the same thing it was running low at idle and then as I would start driving it would be more powerful and would even rise and fall with the RPMs. Eventually one day I was sitting in a parking lot and I heard us a ping, a loud squeal and then smelled burnt rubber from the vents. Since then the AC has not worked. The heater still works and the blower still works it just doesn’t blow cold. And every time the AC light comes on it’ll stay on for a minute they will make a squeal immediately and then start blinking after a minute

 

Great thanks. I’ll see if that’s covered under my dealer warranty and if not it looks like I’m gonna be spending some money at rockauto.com soon. Fingers crossed

 

Just had this happen to me today. Is it better to just replace the the AC compressor or try to diagnose if it's the clutch or some other method. There's no noise when the the blower is off so I assume it's safe to drive.

 

I'd pop the hood and see if you still have a serpentine belt first.

 

There definitely is

 

I asked that question because when the compressor locks up, the burning smell you get is usually from the belt slipping on the pulley. If the belt is still good and going roundy-round, that's a good first step.

 

I should've clarified. I didn't notice any burning smell at any point.