GenVibe - Community for Pontiac Vibe Enthusiasts

man, i could really use a hand here. GF's 2003 Vibe GT wasn't cooling as well as it should so i put my gauges on it, found the pressures about 2/3 of what they should have been for the temp and humidity. Obviously a leak somewhere so i pulled vacuum, which held for a half hour, then added some refrigerant with dye (not UV. i already had an unused can of the red dye from when my truck had a leaky o-ring). worked well for about a week and once performance decreased i told her to stop using the ac to avoid damage.

Today, I checked the system, couldn't see any dye, pressures were way down but system was not fully discharged.

The bad: Compressor clutch would not engage this time, even when contact is jumpered (with 5A fuse in jumper) straight to battery.

good:underhood Relay:good, under-dash 10A fuse: good

of course, what i mentioned as good is kind of bad actually. i'd rather it be just a worn-out relay than anything else.

Thanks in advancr for any help.

I'd look into check/replacing the a/c clutch first. A slipping clutch will also reduce performance. Not too hard to do...pretty accessible by removing the front left tire and splash guard.

That's what I suspect after doing a few more checks yesterday. It's getting power from the fuse box but the clutch ohms out of range so it looks like the coil either has bad windings or a blown fuse. I'm guessing it was cycling way too much when the refrigerant was low and burned itself out.

Thanks

These A/C compressors seem to be pretty good about lasting for a long time after you replace the clutch. My old boss was very against it, as the nose of the compressor can get ripped up by a bad clutch.

lannvouivre wrote: the nose of the compressor can get ripped up by a bad clutch.

Meaning the worn pieces reduce clearance and let it rub up against the body of the compressor?

The pulley still works smoothly and quietly as an idler and I can easily turn the compressor by hand so hopefully we dodged that bullet.

I don't really know, I haven't removed a clutch yet, knock on wood.

Replaced clutch. snaprings are evil but everything worked perfectly...untill the compressor seal blew out. Guess I found the leak. Yay.

Vortec wrote:Guess I found the leak. Yay.

Gratz!