A/C Clutch Failure time.

Status
Not open for further replies.
Joined
Dec 10, 2018
Messages
293
Location
New York City
I have a friend who owns a Chevrolet Camaro that's a few years old. I don't remember the exact year. The car has about 50K miles on it.

The AC stopped working. I took a look at it and saw the compressor wasn't engaging. I checked the fuse and it was good. I then replaced the A/C compressor relay. With the car running and AC button on, I felt and heard the A/C Compressor relay click. I put the old relay in and it also clicked. Even though the relay clicked, the Compressor didn't engage.

I concluded myself that since the relay clicked, there is enough refrigerant in the system for the PCM to engage the compressor.

Since the compressor isn't engaging, I figured its a broken wire somewhere in the compressor clutch circuit. My friend decided to go to the dealer to have it taken care of.

The dealership told my friend that "The compressor failed internally" and needs to be replaced. The cost is $1000. My friend is paying that since he needs the car fixed quickly.

When my friend asked about how they diagnosed it, They said they hooked up the pressure gauges and saw that the pressures were good. Then they used a scan tool to command on the compressor. Because the compressor didn't engage, they concluded it was a bad compressor.

I feel like they didn't spend enough time diagnosing the wiring and just assumed it was the compressor. If it was me, I would have checked continuity from the relay to the A/C clutch connector and also the ground from the clutch connector. If that was good, I would have measured the resistance of the clutch coil. Its not shorted since the fuse isn't blown so it could only fail as an open circuit.

Of course it can also be a mechanical failure of the clutch and the clutch gap wore itself too much so the coil can't engage the clutch.

Technically if only the A/C clutch failed, the clutch and compressor are serviced as an entire unit. I understand that.


Can an A/C clutch fail in a few years and 50K Miles? I've only heard of them fail at 100K+ Miles. My old Cadillac's compressor was still engaging after 18 years and 170K miles.
 
Something ain't stirring the Kool-Aid with your friend's A/C service at the dealership. Their position is that the compressor has failed, and so it needs to be replaced to fix the problem. If it were me, I would want to know more details about the compressor failure. Is the unit considered bad and in need of replacement because it has a bad clutch on it, or has the compressor suffered from a catastrophic internal event which has rendered it inoperable?

If the former scenario is the case, $1000 to rectify the situation seems low to me. The parts alone would be 3/4 of that price tag I bet, so that doesn't leave much for their labor to do all the work. Maybe they are cutting him a deal if it's just the clutch and needs a whole new unit to fix, but dealership service departments aren't known for cutting deals on work unless the customer is a big-wig of some sorts, or if keeping the customer happy is more valuable than full price on the service bill (think: local bank president or city councilman).

If the latter scenario from above is the case, $1000 wouldn't be nearly enough IMO to fix the problem. Parts would be well over $1500 I would imagine, and labor could be another half-grand if not careful. I would expect to see something closer to $2000 if the compressor lunched itself and they had to clean up the crime scene before making it all work again.

The price discrepancy just seems too hard to reconcile to me...no matter what went wrong, the $1000 bill seems to be too low to fix any of the plausible causes, given the info they provided you on what happened.

Call me crazy, but maybe there is some skulduggery afoot?

IDK, maybe I am just being paranoid...people do routinely call me crazy, so take anything I have said with a gigantic grain of salt, please.
 
You made assumptions in your own diagnosis without verifying and are now two people removed from the problem and want to second guess the dealership?

Maybe you are right but you could also be wrong since you did not actually drill down to the actual root cause.
 
I suspect the dealership does not replace compressor clutches , not interested in saving the customer money . They sell complete compressors .

We have a 2015 Chevy Sonic . The A/C stopped cooling before the 36 month / 36,000 mile bumper to bumper warranty expired . Started to check it myself , but figured , why should I ? It is under warranty .

We took it to one of the local Chevy dealers . They fixed it and my Wife picked it up . They tried to tell my wife we owed something for the repair . Wife told them they would have to talk to me .

That afternoon they called me . Wanted me to pay $ 400 something on the repair . They may have said that was 1/2 price . Can not remember for sure .

I told the person on the pone , the car is still under the bumper to bumper warranty . I replied , I was not paying one red cent & I could easily called Chevy corporate customer service . I then asked what was wrong with the A/C system . They either said a bad compressor or compressor clutch ( think that was it ) . And it over charged with refrigerant .

I replied , I had thought about hooking the gauges to it , but decided , why bother . It is still under warranty . So , I had not touched the A/C system and the only one else that had touched the car was them . I received 4 free oil / filter changes when I purchased the car .

So , if it was way over charged , either it came that way from the factory , or they had added refrigerant ( why would they as the A/C had been working well ) . And the factory did not over charge it , or it would not have cooled well when we purchased the car and for over 2 years .

Told the person A/C & refrigeration works on temperature and pressures . If the charge is not right , it affects temperature and pressures & it does not work right .

By this time , I was told they would cover it , this time , as a sign of good faith . I said , fine , thank you and have a good day .

Tell me , does this tale encourage you to believe what a dealership repair department tells you ?
 
A dealer may not have an OEM clutch available to order. Their parts system may very well show the compressor as the only replacement part. So they fit their responses to the customer based on that.
Or they are simply lazy and greedy, and want the biggest payout for this job.
 
I had a similar issue early this summer on my dd 08 civic si. The clutch was not engaging so I replaced the relay (which is a common issue with honda's), didn't help.

Next I checked for voltage at the coil and there was voltage at the coil. I then connected my manifold gauges to check for charge, had refrigerant.

So i figured before I replaced the compressor I would check the clutch air gap, It was .010 off.

I took off the clutch hub and removed 2 shims, reassembled and the ac has been working perfect since.
 
The key test is to see if there is power to the clutch wire when it should be on. Also of course the ground at the other end of the coil needs to be good. If the coil is getting power but doesn't pull in, it is likely that the gap is too large. This is something you can often fix at home.

Dealers and most mechanics will insist on replacing the whole compressor rather than fiddle with the gap, for the good reason that if they replace the whole compressor they have a warranty on it from the supplier. If they tinker with the clutch and it breaks down again, the customer will not be happy.
 
Very common issue with the later GM AC compressors. I recently in the past year changed out 2 compressors on Camaros ( 2010 and a 2013 both V6) and 1 on a Sonic (1.4T).

All 3 had the same issue - the clutch was bad. You could tap or pry on the clutch and it would engage then disengage a few seconds later. The magnets where weak. Each time I replaced the entire compressor because the cost of the clutch alone and labor to replace it was equal to a new compressor. Customers wanted new and since there was no actual compressor failure to spill debris into the system, it was a compressor only replacement and recharge. The dealer is probably padding the bill with new condensor and flushing the system.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top