How to Troubleshoot an AC Compressor

Video Transcript

"Good afternoon my name is Tom Brintzenhofe, Certified Master Mechanic out of Reading, Pennsylvania and I'm going to today I'm going to talk to you a little bit about how to troubleshoot an AC compressor. Now an air conditioning compressor on your vehicle unfortunately is real difficult to diagnose especially when it comes to noises. If your compressor is making any kind of noises whatsoever it is a good indication that something is definitely going wrong with it. To diagnose a condition with your AC compressor or your air conditioning system should really be left to a specialist. There is specialized equipment used to evacuate and recharge your system, gages that cost probably several hundred dollars to use to hook up. To diagnose an air conditioning system it is best used with a set of gages, the pressures on the high and low side will definitely tell you what the conditions are that may be causing the problem with the air conditioning system. For an average person at home to diagnose an air conditioning system is very difficult and in times you will end up replacing more parts than needed and todays systems have gotten more advanced than they used to be 10 to 15 years ago so it makes it even more difficult to work on them. Outside of maybe putting a little bit of a charge into it every once in a while. You can stop at your local parts store and get yourself a can of Freon for I think it is $7 or $8 a can now and a charge hose I don't know, might cost you less than $40 and that isn't too difficult to do if it is not really blowing all that cold and you want to top it off a little bit it is not something that's too difficult but when we're talking about a major major repair like replacing your AC compressor or replacing another major component of your air conditioning system that should really be left up to a qualified trained AC mechanic. It is very dangerous to do since the lines are under high pressure. I wouldn't really seriously recommend doing it yourself but check with your local mechanic, somebody who you trust maybe something who can give you some key points or somebody might actually evacuate the system and pull everything down so there is no pressure in it so you can actually take it home and work on it yourself, get the repairs done, take it back to the shop and let them remove all the air out of the system and recharge it for you but that's the best thing I can tell you when there is any kind of repairs or diagnosing an air conditioning system."