AC flashing light, engine flutter (1 Viewer)

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Joined
Jun 3, 2018
Threads
30
Messages
144
Location
Salt Lake City, UT
1999 LC

Tried to use my AC not that long ago and it would start flashing after a second or two. It has done the past, usually when it's really hot and I'm idling, but now it's doing this fluttering with the engine. I presume it's the compressor trying to engage - from other threads I have been trying to here a grinding, but it sounds more like a whirring, like another engine trying to start up. Here's a video - in it, the car is already started and the only thing I do is press the button, the RPMs flutter and stabilize when the AC button starts blinking, and then I do it again. Any thoughts are appreciated!

 
Bump!

In case it helps, I'm pretty sure I was low on refrigerant so fingers crossed that it is low enough that the fail-safe on the clutch is kicking in.
 
Not yet - I haven't really been driving much and it is winter so the AC doesn't get used, but it's top of my list when I take my truck in next (which will be soon). I'll update when I get word. From reading a million different things about this, my fingers are crossed that my AC just needs to be recharged. I've seen that the clutch won't engage if it is empty. FML if it is the compressor.
 
Not yet - I haven't really been driving much and it is winter so the AC doesn't get used, but it's top of my list when I take my truck in next (which will be soon). I'll update when I get word. From reading a million different things about this, my fingers are crossed that my AC just needs to be recharged. I've seen that the clutch won't engage if it is empty. FML if it is the compressor.
can you repost the noise? or tell me if it sounds like this:

 
Not yet - I haven't really been driving much and it is winter so the AC doesn't get used, but it's top of my list when I take my truck in next (which will be soon). I'll update when I get word. From reading a million different things about this, my fingers are crossed that my AC just needs to be recharged. I've seen that the clutch won't engage if it is empty. FML if it is the compressor.
i had the same symptoms as you, didnt run the ac because it would flash and make a sort of scratching noise (hard to describe but you can hear it in the video i posted). Ac stopped working in december, and in february it started making the same noise even with the AC off.... replaced the compressor and still have the same noise, i believe it could be the fan bracket which connects the fan to the harmonic balancer or possibly the harmonic balancer itself. ive read that both can and do go bad
 
i had the same symptoms as you, didnt run the ac because it would flash and make a sort of scratching noise (hard to describe but you can hear it in the video i posted). Ac stopped working in december, and in february it started making the same noise even with the AC off.... replaced the compressor and still have the same noise, i believe it could be the fan bracket which connects the fan to the harmonic balancer or possibly the harmonic balancer itself. ive read that both can and do go bad

Probably be a good thing to edit this post in order to avoid confusion. The 'fan bracket' is an aluminum part/bracket that the fan and fan clutch bolt to. I think you are confusing the fan clutch (right behind the fan blades) with the harmonic balancer which is a completely separate component. Your HB is the large pulley at the very bottom of the front of engine. It is connected to the Crank Shaft and powers all of the other things that are driven by your serpentine belt (as well as balancing the rotating mass of the crank, hence its name).
 
i had the same symptoms as you, didnt run the ac because it would flash and make a sort of scratching noise (hard to describe but you can hear it in the video i posted). Ac stopped working in december, and in february it started making the same noise even with the AC off.... replaced the compressor and still have the same noise, i believe it could be the fan bracket which connects the fan to the harmonic balancer or possibly the harmonic balancer itself. ive read that both can and do go bad

Hmm, mine doesn't sound like that. I just took this video - I press the AC button twice and you can hear it draw power but stop after about a second. If you were looking at the tach, you'd see the rpms drop from 1000 to 600 while it tries turning on the AC.

 
@richardse08 Just got the news from my shop (State Automotive in SLC, the best of the best) - the whole unit was toast. Metal shavings everywhere, in everything. The compressor was dead but not so dead that it was seized. Only the lines and evaporator were spared of the carnage. They're replacing everything for a cool $1,600 and flushing all the lines to clean out the shavings. It's painful to pay, but I can't survive in the desert without AC. It'd be a lot more painful if that stimulus check hadn't just cleared.... THANKS OBAMA.
 
@richardse08 Just got the news from my shop (State Automotive in SLC, the best of the best) - the whole unit was toast. Metal shavings everywhere, in everything. The compressor was dead but not so dead that it was seized. Only the lines and evaporator were spared of the carnage. They're replacing everything for a cool $1,600 and flushing all the lines to clean out the shavings. It's painful to pay, but I can't survive in the desert without AC. It'd be a lot more painful if that stimulus check hadn't just cleared.... THANKS OBAMA.
Thank god for the stimulus check! Man that sucks, sounds like you've got it sorted out though, thats always a good feeling. Im still dealing with mine, and now it wont even start :(
 

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