Aircon seizing/stalling engine
Discussion
Afternoon all!
Hopefully a bit of a sensecheck from those more familiar with the aircon workings on the speed6.
The aircon in my Tuscan has always been a bit rubbish (partly due to the only outlet being in the lower pod behind the steering wheel, and partly as it's never really ice cold) so i've not really used it that much and just taken the roof off when it's warm. Recently driving along the motorway, i heard a loud screeching/belt squeal and the engine suddenly died. I coasted to a halt thinking the worst. I turned everything off and on, disengaged the aircon, and the car started and drives fine.
Engaging the aircon and the car idles much lower and laboured, but no belt squeal.
So... time to recondition the compressor? If so, any places to recommend doing it? I would appreciate any input if anyone has had similar symptoms or had a failure? I found it hard to believe that the compressor managed to stall the engine whilst travelling in 5th gear at 70mph. I would have thought it would have shredded the belt instead?
Hopefully a bit of a sensecheck from those more familiar with the aircon workings on the speed6.
The aircon in my Tuscan has always been a bit rubbish (partly due to the only outlet being in the lower pod behind the steering wheel, and partly as it's never really ice cold) so i've not really used it that much and just taken the roof off when it's warm. Recently driving along the motorway, i heard a loud screeching/belt squeal and the engine suddenly died. I coasted to a halt thinking the worst. I turned everything off and on, disengaged the aircon, and the car started and drives fine.
Engaging the aircon and the car idles much lower and laboured, but no belt squeal.
So... time to recondition the compressor? If so, any places to recommend doing it? I would appreciate any input if anyone has had similar symptoms or had a failure? I found it hard to believe that the compressor managed to stall the engine whilst travelling in 5th gear at 70mph. I would have thought it would have shredded the belt instead?
Switching the fans on full makes my tick-over drop by about 50-100rpm; switching the air-con on makes it drop another 50-100rpm. I actually set my tick-over with the air-con on and the fans on at about 50%. I thought this was 'normal' (my air-con was re-gassed fairly recently - no improvement).
Tuscanuwe said:
If gas is low, lubrication is also low, because the oil uses the gas for flowing through the system.
So it is a maintenance failure!
Ist not a TVR fault, it is a fault of the TVR owner!
Uwe
The Aircon was re-gassed 1yr ago, and pressure tested so i'm wondering if i have a leak then! So it is a maintenance failure!
Ist not a TVR fault, it is a fault of the TVR owner!
Uwe
When i've used it previously the idle has/does always drop be a few hundred rpm as i know it does place an extra load on the system.
I don't think this will be a DiY fix, just interested to know whether it could have such an effect as to stall the engine!
If the AC compressor seized, its toast. But there may be too much oil in the system and it hydro locked itself.
I stripped one down a while back from a seizure and it was scored to buggery and virtually unusable. They are not especially hard to take apart.
If the refrigerant is low, then the trinary swicth will stop the system from running, so there must be at least some pressure.
If your feeling brave, remove the compressor and carefully tip it upside down to empty the oil. you should find about 50ml or so in it, any more and the system has too much oil, and less and there is not enough oil. Of course you want to have the system evacuated first!
Most AC regass stations wouldn't know how ac works if you gave them a manual, and from this just put in oil when its really not necessary.Too much oil saturates the gas, coats the inside of the evaporator and makes it run like crap! Your poor ac performance is probably down to lack of gas/too much oil, and a dodgy Filter drier, they don't last forever. Along with the correct amount of refrigerant the system should run fine. Its rare I find myself putting in oil to ac systems, unless I have taken oil Out.
I stripped one down a while back from a seizure and it was scored to buggery and virtually unusable. They are not especially hard to take apart.
If the refrigerant is low, then the trinary swicth will stop the system from running, so there must be at least some pressure.
If your feeling brave, remove the compressor and carefully tip it upside down to empty the oil. you should find about 50ml or so in it, any more and the system has too much oil, and less and there is not enough oil. Of course you want to have the system evacuated first!
Most AC regass stations wouldn't know how ac works if you gave them a manual, and from this just put in oil when its really not necessary.Too much oil saturates the gas, coats the inside of the evaporator and makes it run like crap! Your poor ac performance is probably down to lack of gas/too much oil, and a dodgy Filter drier, they don't last forever. Along with the correct amount of refrigerant the system should run fine. Its rare I find myself putting in oil to ac systems, unless I have taken oil Out.
Edited by tofts on Tuesday 30th August 23:00
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