I am experiancing something odd with my A/C compressor and before I
have the dealer work on it I thought I would get the thoughts of the
group.

A month or so ago I noticed my cooling was not as strong as it should
be so I brought out my A/C gauge and noticed that my low side pressue
was a bit low (I don't have a high side gauge). At this piont I added
about 1/4 to 1/2 a can of R-134a and decided to keep an eye on it.

Last weekend my finance said her A/C was not cutting it so I brought
my my gauge and checked her Pontic Vibe (really a toyota matrix and a
very cool car). It was low and I added nearly 1/2 a can to get it at
the top of the safe range. Then I checked the FEH and it was again a
bit low.

Being out of R 134A I ran to town and bought a new can of straight
134A (i.e. no "super cool" or leak dectors etc.). The FEH sucked up
nearly the entire can, which suprised me, but the A/C was working
great. At this point I added A/C leak to my list of things for the
dealer to check out and went on my way.....

Tuesday night I noticed a "whooshing sound" (like air brakes) as I
got on the freeway (over 4 grand on the Tach) and thought that did
not sound good and made anote to check it on Wed. Morning. Wed
Morning I got my new tires put on (see related post) and took off on
a short road trip. While climbing some steep grades (again over 4
grand) I heard the same "whoosing sound" and remebered to check
everything when I had a minute.

Opening the hood I found R-134A had leaked (sprayed) out of the
compressor and covered the coolant bottle, fan belt and part of the
inside of the fender. The A/C was still working however.
The "whooshing sound" continued later in the day when the engine was
pushed hard, however it seemed to occur less often and with less
noise.

Does anybody have an explination for this?

It seems to me that the A/C system may be over-filled (i.e. my low
side gauge is not reading right) and some kind of safety valve is
blowing open on the compressor to get the pressure down to a safe
level.....But it also occurs to be that the compressor may have a
leak that only revels itself at high engine speed and that is the
source of the low - low side pressure reading.

Any thoughts?


Clearly I do not want to pay the Dealer to fix something that I
broke.

Thanks.

>>Pontic Vibe (really a toyota matrix and a very cool car).

Do you really think so?? I sell those cars & I hate the things. I generally love any Toyota, but the noisy rough riding Matrix just doesn't cut it in my book(about the ONLY plus I can see to those things is the great gas mileage).

~John

We we got a 2005 Vibe with 34,000 miles for $12,500. At that price range nothing beats it. It's got Toyota driveline (plus), pontic style (minus in my book) and tons of room for the kids. It doesn't seem to noisy to me, but then again I am truck person and I am used to lots of noise.

I would bring it in to the dealer and play dumb. Sounds like it should still be under warranty since it's an 05. System could be contaminated with H2O (ie: a leak somewhere). Or, probably needs a complete flush and refill with refrigerant and lube.