Ok I probably destroyed my compressor but I will accept blame and replace it again if I have to.

I replaced my compressor on my 2006S type R about two years ago because it was leaking and had a green UV stain around the front when I got the car. Also when i got the car the ac didnt work and after charging the system it would lose Freon over short period time. And yes I’ll call refrigerant Freon all day long. I can’t get it out of my head so just live with it. Period

I replaced the compressor with the only thing that I had available which was a new (not rebuilt) compressor from Murray. I also replaced the filter dryer and got new pag 100 oil for it. I put the new compressor in. i did the spring valve modification on the back of the compressor and then buttoned it all up.

this is worked fine for a while and then I noticed I had no cooling and the AC clutch wasn’t coming on. I hooked up my gauge set and I wasn’t seeing any pressure on my gauges. I may have seen pressure on the low side but not on the high side I can’t recall but for some reason a distinctly remember not seeing any pressure on at least one of the gauges. I messed around with the gauge set and the connections to the car to try to change pressure on the gauge and I don’t remember the details but eventually started working and I believe i may have added some refrigerant but still couldn’t get the get the clutch to turn on and that’s when I discovered I had a pushed pin in the fuse box for the compressor clutch relay. So basically the compressor clutch wasn’t getting power so that’s why my air-conditioning wasn’t working. at the time I didn’t have a reason or understanding why I wasn’t seeing any pressure on my gauges but it eventually showed me the pressures so I ignored it. but I figured it out yesterday why that happened.

I took the car out driving around yesterday and I noticed the air conditioner that was once extremely cold after the compressor replacement now wasn’t so cold at idle as I was pulling out of my driveway. As I got on the road and got up to speed it was even worse. it got warmer and It only started to cool again when I came to a stop. Drove home from the store and when I came up the Hill i heard what sounded like a belt squeal.

When I get to the house I open the hood and at idle I could hear a periodic quick blink of a squeal randomly about every 30 seconds. I shut the AC off put in the shop.

before i hooked up the gauges to check the pressures I decided to replace the valve core on the high-pressure line because I had a very slow leak and I had borrowed a valve core replacing tool from a friend that I had to return so I decided to do it. The tool works great except after I unscrewed the valve core and tried to extract it with the tool It didnt come out. I put the tool back on the rod and tried again. It is supposed to grab the valve core but it wasnt. I noticed there was no way to get the valve core to stay on the tool so I had to figure out a way to get it out without losing refrigerant. I put some thing sticky on the end of the tool so the valve core will stick to it and it worked.

when I got the valve core out I noticed that the spring underneath the center plunger that operates the valve was completely crushed and had no spring tension so that may be why it leaked a little and because that piece was a little mangled it kept the tool from being able to grab it and hold onto it for removal. It only sealed because the pressure in the system pushed the valve stopper closed. I replaced the valve and hook up my gauge set.

The low pressure was at 40 something and steady but the high pressure is bouncing wildly rapidly between 200 and 250. And every now and then I hear a quick squeal as the belt locks up. There’s real quick squeal maybe a second long and only happens every minute or so. It’s always a quick squeal and then operates fine. I recovered a little bit of the Freon and it reduced the low pressure stayed about 40 psi but the high stopped swinging by a lot but still high around 250 and now the high pressure gauge was pretty steady. I still have the chirp but it’s less frequent and I’m not sure if I should run it anymore or if that noise was the internal compressor parts Grinding it to bits and pieces and depositing crap all throughout my system.

anybody have any ideas what it might be?

 

Here are some screenshots of the videos I took that wont upload bc theyre too big.
one is how it was when i first connect and it shows the high side bouncing rapidly from 200psi to over 250 psi

the second is after removing a small amount of refrigerant. It stopped bouncing and I thought it had come down to 225 but this shows it fluctuation from 215 to 235

 

Deep breath! Step back from the ledge!

Could the squeal be due to a loose or glazed belt? You have a modified compressor, so it will cycle more than stock. And if the belt is worn or glazed, it might squeal each time the compressor kicks in.

I know it's easy to assume the compressor has failed, but I'd keep that way down on the list of possible causes. I'm no expert on interpreting gauge readings, but do know it's very easy to misinterpret them. I generally try to dissuade people from placing too much emphasis on them.

The zero gauge reading you had? Almost certainly a problem with the quick disconnect coupler not seating fully. Even if the compressor is totally shot, as long as some refrigerant is still present, you'd still have some pressure. With the AC off, high and low sides pressure should equalize. If your gauge set shows pressure on one side only but not the other, the gauge set or respective connection is bad.

Not sure I follow the logic of removing some refrigerant. If the system was a little low (VERY common), it's now even lower.

What of the previous fault with the clutch control circuit? Could it have returned and the clutch is slipping again? Maybe the clutch is making noise, not the belt. My troubleshooting guide has details on how to check for a slipping clutch with a jumper in place of the relay.

Does your power steering feel sluggish or require more effort than normal? On my '02 V6, that's what I noticed when the belt was slipping. The belt was slipping everywhere, not just at the compressor. I added a little belt dressing (1000 Island) for troubleshooting and all returned to normal. I then replaced the belt, but it was nice to first confirm it was bad.

 

Got to thinking some more about this little clue. Does the face of the compressor pulley stop spinning when this happens? If so, that would indicate the compressor clutch is momentarily unpowered (either commanded or not), or the clutch is slipping severely.

Given the chance to spend your time and money, I'd be tempted to see if the clutch remains powered during all this. Lisle (and others) make a relay test jumper kit. I think this model will work on our cars, but am not 100% sure:

https://www.lislecorp.com/specialty-...-jumper-kit-ii

You plug the test jumper between the relay and socket. The relay operates as normal. You then connect a meter or test light to the jumper and you can see how the relay is behaving.

 

I came to the same conclusion after I started to think about it. The compressor runs so perfect when it’s running and that’s most of the time it just seems unlikely that it could seize up for half a second and do that on at 10 to 15 mile trip into town and back Not yet locking uP tight as a drum. And I also had a problem with the supercharger water pump I don’t think I was turning because I’m pretty used to troubleshooting it I’ve had shut up for quite a while with the fuse box I just ordered a whole new set of relays. So yeah I’m really starting to think I don’t have a major problem I have a bad belt and bad relay and a lot of heat and the fact that it’s not locked solid suggests it’s not seizing up. It should’ve been melted down by now. I started the car yesterday and took the temperature from low up to 68° and it was sitting there idling for a good 510 minutes and I didn’t hear a single squeak.

I could see the center hub slow rapidly when the squeal happened. And the friggin relay was hot as hell. So thats good proof I had a bad relay or crappy connections and the relay was probsbly letting go. I swear it was a hot damn relay. I remembered that after posting and after I started it it was fine. I want to put the gauges back on it.

I believe my thought process in removing some gas was due to me believe I definitely added some and when I had charged it after putting in the compressor, it was right on spec. So it was now over full. And that thought plus thinking ig was seizing put me in panic mode. I lost my cool. Made a rash decision. Figured I could always add more but if its popping bc its overfull, its all on me unless I hit that valve! Lol. Im gonna go take a look again. I swapped the horn relay in its slot. And I had a new relay in the foglight slot for some reason (str) so I used that for the r7 and r8 relays. R9 was new from a few months ago.

any idea what the resistance of the coil of those smaller relays are? The bleed resistors were marked 680 ohm and I measured 75 ohms or something like that. I cant find a spec and I dont want to pull the one I just put in bc those pins dont lock in the fuse box any more. Twoo much swapping I guess

 

The hot relay sounds very suspect. It's normal for the electromagnet coil to heat up when energized, but it shouldn't get too hot.

You asked about the coil resistance, but I bet the control side of the relay is fine. Most likely the output contacts are at fault due to arcing, creating lots of heat. The dirty contacts reduce current flow to the clutch coil. Pop off the cover and look for evidence of arcing:



Also inspect the relay prongs for blueish discoloration. This is another sign of heat damage inside the relay.

If you find heat damage on the relay, the corresponding sockets in the fuse panel may also be damaged. When the sockets get hot, the metal gets annealed and can no longer grip the prongs tightly. One way to test for this is to cut a test strip of metal the same size as the relay prongs. Do a test for of each socket, one at a time. Don't just rely on plugging and unplugging the relay, as this tests all sockets at the same time. One (or more) could be loose, but you'd never know if not tested individually.

 

Just remembered I measured relay temperatures once, to get an idea of what was normal:

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/s...-r-s-c-187819/


For a relay that is energized all the time, or nearly so, 125F on a 75F day was normal. If much hotter than that, you’ve probably got some arcing.

 

So I am pretty ive got a power issue whi causes the clutch to slip. I havent measured the voltage at the clutch connector because its been high 90s all week but I seem to remember theres a connector by the right front frame rail that had some corrosion at one time. So need to crawl under there and take a look

 

Glad for you, but nobody said you weren't. Regardless, we should probably stick to discussing your car's AC in this thread.

Maybe start a separate thread if you want to discuss beauty tips, etc.

 

There are some concerning things about this thread: refrigerant being released into the atmosphere and air conditioning systems being charged incorrectly. In many jurisdictions, it's illegal to allow refrigerant to escape into the atmosphere.

The system needs to be charged by weight through the high pressure orifice with the engine off. Evacuate the system to a refrigerant recover container and recharge the system to the correct amount of refrigerant by weight.

 

nobody released anything. You shouldnt say that. Youll confuse folks and theyll think its ok! Geez. Didnt you hear I had a bad valve core. Leaky. And it had been charged by weight but the system seemed empty bc the vlave cores had jammed up. I had a scale and everything. I disnt write all the details bc id wrote way too much as it was

 

@Aarcuda, I'm sorry if I offended you, that was not my intention. One must be careful when servicing the air conditioning system as the refrigerant can cause eye injuries in addition to being a toxic substance. You have experience working on these systems, however if a forum member who is unfamiliar with the air conditioning system is attempting a DIY repair, they should take time to become familiar with the system to ensure their own safety and that of the environment.

Unfortunately, I was never successful replacing the valve cores for the service ports. The solution that worked was to replace the refrigerant pipes with the compressor manifold and the receiver dryer.

 

Well this problem still seems to be plaguing me. Tomorrow ill be looking at a couple of things- like the R8 relay. Maybe check the voltage at F32 to see if it fades out something tells me I will find the contacts in the fuse box are bad for R8. I remember they had an issue where I had to manually hold the contacts from underneath to get the relay in. I think its going to be a bad day bc I could never get the top of the fuse box up high enough to fix that problem before

 

Heads up. If you have to do compressor again rockauto has new visteon/ nissens for our car. I also have 06 str. Just bought one to replace mine. Brand new

 

that is good information. I also just got a 5% discount code for Rock Auto. I can post that too if you’d like anybody can use it apparently.

I really not looking forward to redoing the compressor as it was a royal pain in the butt. I was hoping to replace the clutch if that was possible, but I don’t even want to go there. Hopefully these voltage checks work out, and I can deal with it from the top side of the engine or not the bottom.

 

So here’s a follow up to this post I made last month.

I never got around to completing my troubleshooting because of the squeak quickly revealed itself soon after

one day when my wife was driving into the driveway There was a strange sound coming from the engine compartment. It sounded like a very weird whirling noise.

with the car running, I told her to turn the air conditioner off and she said it is off. It’s been off. I open the hood with the car running and looked at the compressor and I could see the clutch was engaged and the compressor was spinning.

I thought the AC was on so I looked but Sure enough the AC was turned off.

Thought maybe the relay for the compressor clutch was stuck so I pulled it out. We started the car later on you the compressor wasn’t turning anymore. Just the pulley. so I figured It was the relay. Kyle was still making that strange whirling noise though. At this point, I figured it might be the tensioner pulley bearing or an idler bearing going bad.

Left at the car out again later but then she calls me and tells me that the car started making a whole mess of smoke from under the hood, I went to look at it and sure enough thr serpentine belt had broken

I tried to turn the pulley at the AC compressor, but the pulley was frozen solid. It wouldn’t spin at all. but I could still turn the clutch portion which confused me because I thought that the pulley rode on a bearing which rides on the compressor shaft so that if the pulley was stuck, the shaft would be stuck, but that’s not the situation. the pulley bearing rides on the compressor housing

The compressor clutch was baked. You could see the metal turned blue from the heat, so I pulled the compressor and sure enough found that the pulley bearing was indeed toast.

I found a tech article from a compressor manufacturer that said that the compressor clutch bearing or pulley bearing can seize if the AC pressures are too high, causing the clutch slip on the pulley, creating heat, which can melt the grease of that bearing and causes a meltdown of the bearing and if that’s the case it’s likely that the compressor housing where the bearing sits could be out of shape after a pulley siezes and that you shouldnt just replace the clutch because the heat that caused the grease to come out of the bearing, they caused the bearing the seas, most likely overheated the compressor housing, causing it to be deformed. If you just replaced, the compressor clutch assembly, the new clutch assembly will probably seize as well due to the housing dimensions being off. They said don’t just replace the clutch assembly. Have to replace the whole compressor.

The other possible cause could be if the voltage to the m clutch was too low, causing the clutch to slip, causing heat, causing the grease to melt out of the bearing causing complete meltdown

I know I’ve checked my pressures and they were well within the range of operation not high at all. I checked the voltage at the clutch coil, which was not easy. I found out after the incident had occurred the coil had shorted itself out, so I couldn’t get the compressor to turn on to measure voltage

And then recovered the refrigerant and I mocked up a resistor in place of the clutch coil. I measured about 13 V at the compressor with about 13.4 V at the fuse box so definitely not low voltage.

Since I didn’t have any refrigerant in the system, I couldn’t command the card to turn the clutch on, so I had to pull the clutch relay and just jumper the contacts there.

since I could not run the test with the original relay in place because I had already drained the refrigerant out of the system I have to recheck this after I get everything back together

I measured the amperage that was being drawn by my load resistor. The clutch coil resistance on the new compressor measured about 4 1/2 ohms, but I used a 10 ohm resistor as that’s all I had that could handle the current once I get everything reinstalled I’ll measure the amperage going to the clutch coil at the fuse box from there, I’ll be able to tell what the voltage is at the clutch coil to see if I have too much of a drop

just got the new compressor installed tonight and I’m pumping down the system as I type this. if everything goes as planned, I should have it refilled with 134 tomorrow. I also have to change out the oil pan gasket and a couple of things that I noticed


stay tuned.