Car stall when AC turns on

Fantom_X7 · May 4, 2010

Okay guys, today I decided to start my car and let it run for about 45mins just to hear it run. Car was running fine, no problems whatsoever. I sat in the car and it was pretty hot so i turn on the AC and the car just dies. I'm like okay....let try this again..switched off AC then started car back up, idle is fine, switch on AC again and car dies again. This time I try again but feathering the throttle and it stays alive but as soon as i let off car dies. Last try i hold RPMS around 1700 but then i notice a burning smell along with smoke from hood so i kill it. Pop hood and see some smoke coming from under the AC compressor and I can count how many times i've actually ran AC on this car so this is very strange. Also after the rebuild about 2 months ago i fired up the AC and the car was fine. The only thing i've changed since then was a 75mmtb. Could it be low on R-12 causing it to do this or is the compressor suddenly going belly up? Smog is bypassed btw.

MustangMoser · May 4, 2010

ur a/c compressor may be locked up. and yes that can just happen with no warning, especially if the a/c is hardly ever used. always best to run ur a/c at least once a month to keep everything oiled.

toyman · May 4, 2010

I would agree with MustangMoser that the A/C compressor has seized. The smoke was probably from the belt slipping.

Win · May 4, 2010

If you take the belt off for a min and run the car with the AC and don't see the clutch engage and disengage when you turn on and off then yeah you have a bad clutch that has seized in the AC compressor.

Fantom_X7 · May 5, 2010

Win said:
If you take the belt off for a min and run the car with the AC and don't see the clutch engage and disengage when you turn on and off then yeah you have a bad clutch that has seized in the AC compressor.

Okay I'll try that out. I'll probably just run an even shorter belt and bypass AC for the time being. How difficult is it to replace the compressor?

MustangMoser · May 5, 2010

not difficult, but if you dont have any way to recover ur freon, u'll lose all of it, and have to put new in. also you really need to pull a vacuum on the a/c system after u put the new compressor in. moisture from the air can negativly affect ur a/c's cooling.