2006 Vibe AC fuse keeps blowing

[Americandodo]

Hey everyone! Longtime viewer first time subscriber and questioner...questionee??? Not sure how that works exactly?

Anyway, I just purchased my second 2006 Vibe and this gal is a plain Jane model but it is a 5 speed... So I was thrilled to pick it up!

Anyway I have a problem with the AC. When you push the button (with new under the steering wheel 10A fuse) it lights up for a bit then pops the fuse.

Now here's my problem... Well besides that whole fuse thing. So reading around here on the forums I have heard maybe it's low refrigerant so I had the existing refrigerant pulled out then me thinking I'm a handy fella (sometimes) decided I'll fill it back up myself to see if it was just improperly filled up and either over or under filled with r134a. By the way there was indeed refrigerant in the system as well as oil and I pulled a vacuum on it and it held for 45 minutes with no drop... So leaks don't seem to be an issue

Anyway after the vacuum I started putting the r134a in it and went to fire the car up to continue filling it up... First I put a new fuse (10a) under the dash then turned the car on... The AC Light lit up and I went to continue filling the refrigerant... Unfortunately the fuse popped again really quickly and I do not know how to jump the compressor manually...I could have sworn I ran across an image on here showing the right pins to jump but just cannot find it anymore???

Deep down inside I'm thinking there's some other issue that's causing the AC fuse to pop but I do still need to finish filling the car with about 23-24 oz of 134a....

Other things that might be important for you all to know... The fan motor blows great, the compressor clutch spins by hand and I don't see any obvious issues... I'm guessing I've got a short somewhere? It's it common or even possible for the fuse to blow with low refrigerant as a safety switch if the refrigerant is low? I didn't see others posting about it but figured I'd better ask.

And if someone can please share where a pic or info where I should jump the relay to at least get the 134a filled up to the proper amount... I'd be super grateful!

Thanks in advance and God bless!

[joatmon]

First off, of the AC fuse keeps blowing, then something is shorted out somewhere, and if that is in the compressor clutch, then bypassing the relay could melt something.

Low refrigerant shouldn't cause the AC fuse to blow

There is a picture in viewtopic.php?f=28&t=37869 that shows the AC clutch relay, and if you want to feed 12V directly to it, then jumper 12V to the relay socket marked "12V to clutch"

Here is a bit of the 04 matrix AC wiring diagram, shows what the AC fuse feeds. If there is a short blowing the AC fuse, it would be somewhere in there, although I can't offer advice on how to isolate it

acfuse.jpg (30.75 KiB) Viewed 1158 times

[Americandodo]

First off, of the AC fuse keeps blowing, then something is shorted out somewhere, and if that is in the compressor clutch, then bypassing the relay could melt something.

Low refrigerant shouldn't cause the AC fuse to blow

There is a picture in viewtopic.php?f=28&t=37869 that shows the AC clutch relay, and if you want to feed 12V directly to it, then jumper 12V to the relay socket marked "12V to clutch"

Here is a bit of the 04 matrix AC wiring diagram, shows what the AC fuse feeds. If there is a short blowing the AC fuse, it would be somewhere in there, although I can't offer advice on how to isolate it


acfuse.jpg

Thank you so much for the help! Do you think just buying a new compressor (with clutch) would be the easiest route? I'm terrible at tracking down electrical shorts?

I'll take the schematic you sent and try my best to track things down and see if I can find the short. Is it common to have a short in compressor clutch? Basically the fuse used to run for a few minutes then pop but lately it pops pretty quickly... I don't even know if that helps at all?

Anyway... Truly, I thank you for your time and advice!

[andrewclaus]

It's seldom a good idea to replace parts without clear evidence of failure. But it's probably what most shops do, from complaints I hear from friends.

A slow blow on a fuse generally means the problem is not a short circuit, rather an overload. The only load on the circuit is the clutch, so the evidence points to the clutch. How expensive is it, and how much would a shop charge to troubleshoot it?