AC Compressor puked

[phenrichs]

Wife's 2006 XLT. She came home tonight and said that the AC worked on the way to work this morning, tonight on the way home nothing. I fired it up and no compressor kicking on. Ok so I check all fuses and relays (start with the easy and cheap first right) all good. Crap, so I go looking under the hood. Of course the compressor is on the bottom. So down to the garage floor I go. Undercarriage cover in a nice green/yellow liquid.

Guess that answers the question of why the A/C blows hot.

Now on to my question. Any idea on what this is going to cost me? This looks like you have to pull have the engine to get it out. Or at least the radiator.

 

[Hamfisted]

Ball park figure on around $1000 to change the compressor and associated parts, evac the system and recharge it . The compressor is about $350 with a new clutch on it. Probably a new receiver/dryer assembly will be installed as well, another $100. Double all that for labor, you'll be doing well to get it done for $1000.



-Mike

 

[phenrichs]

That is what I was thinking but when I saw the price of the compressor I thought maybe less till I got on here and saw mention of all the other components needing to be replaced associated with the compressor. OUCH

 

[phenrichs]

Thanks by the way.

 

[stamp11127]

I'd expect higher if you have rear air.
One of three things may have happened:
1) The safety valve on the compressor opened due to high pressure inside
2) Lines let go and dumped the dye on the compressor
3) Seals in the compressor let go, blew dye all over

If the compressor crapped out and blew trash in the system it will require cleaning at a minimum. Big bucks for that due to the time involved.

I'd be surprised if it was under $1500 done correctly.

Do you have a good sized air compressor?

 

[phenrichs]

It does have rear air. I do have a good size air compressor. Just not sure if this is something I want to tackle. The location of the ac compressor looks like a tough job.

 

[mkc1962]

MIne had not crapped yet, but was leaking oil at a pretty steady rate. even though dual system hold a bit over 17oz of oil that is not enough to last forever. If your lucky, maybe it low pressured before frying the compressor. In my case, rather than take the chance of compressor failure (which is always a nastier and more costly repair) I decided to go ahead and redo entire system instad of constantly watching the leak and waiting on the inevitable. Of course if you are doing it yourself you will save big $, if not anything is a guess......However I ordered the compressor, dryer, both expansion valves and all o rings for $262 shipped, from Rock Auto just last night. GPD 9632595 is the item number sold in a kit form, All items needed to do the full rework of the sytem.. Minus flush fluid, pag oil and refrigerant of course.

Mine is also a 2006.

Compressor isnt that hard to remove, 3- 10mm bolts, a few wires and out the front it comes with the manifolds attached.

good luck.

 

[rexster314]

If you're lucky the crap from the compressor didn't make it to the evaporator core(s). If it did I hope you can flush it out completely, otherwise you'll be looking at evaporator replacement as well.

 

[phenrichs]

well for that price she can roll the window down.

 

[phenrichs]

OK so I can't afford to fix this right now. Big shock. Is there anything I should do to prevent anything further from being damaged?

 

[stamp11127]

Nope, just leave it as is.

 

[rexster314]

You might want to disconnect the wire at the compressor, if you turn on windshield defogger or heater sometimes the A/C will come on as well

 

[buildingdoc]

if you discharged all your refrigerant, you don't have to disconnect the compressor. The system has a low pressure cut out switch that prevents the system from operating without refrigerant.

 

[Jb14]

There is a very good AC company out of San Diego that sell OE kits for around 350. Very good hits and support. Also while your at it check your clutch fan and if needing to be replaced use a ford fan not after market. Your system with rear AC will take 3 1/2 pounds of freon

 

[mkc1962]

Id remove the electrical connector from the clutch on the compressor to avoid any accidental running. That way atleast you can still use the circulation fans. Right now you might be so lucky as to have only lost pressure along with some of the oil and not have metal shavings floating all through your system. Continued running would only cause more damage IF there is still enough pressure in it to allow compressor running.

for what its worth....the $262 Kit I got from Rock auto is working great. We just did a 1000 mile road trip and all is great. Along with the fact I obtained zero vacuum loss for 24 hours prior to charging. It has maintained a constant static pressure over the past week and that 1000 miles. Though I might add, I came to find out after install that MY oil leak was from the manifold piping network where it attaches to the compressor, and not the compressor itself. That pipe alone was $304 and only available at ford. You may want to take the time and pressurize your system with Nitrogen and search for leaks prior to buying any parts. As my truck had a used compressor on it due to previous owner trying to repair on the cheap, I opted to bring mine back to fully new capacity. The manifold pipe was an added surprise. Total rebuild of my system, with me doing all the work was around $625, and that included all fluids.

 

[98eb5.4]

Now on to my question. Any idea on what this is going to cost me? This looks like you have to pull have the engine to get it out. Or at least the radiator.

Compressor isnt that hard to remove, 3- 10mm bolts, a few wires and out the front it comes with the manifolds attached.

had a look at mine also, from under the hood, it does look quite buried but from underneath, looked like easy access to the 3 bolts mentioned above and not a big deal

my compressor clutch was making a racket, that would have required fixing cos it could seize then i would have a seized pulley and fry the serpentine belt

i mention it for folks that may not know, that you can get a bypass pulley (~ 50 bucks) that replaces a bad or problematic clutch/compressor scenario

one place i checked wanted a coupla hundred bucks just for a straight swap