Some of this information may be irrelavent, but I’ll include it just in case…
For the last 3 months there has been a semi-quiet whining noise (sounding almost exactly like a supercharger on an F150 Lightning) coming from the drivers side of the engine bay at certain RPMs. The noise begins at around 3800rpm and continues to increase in volume all the way to 6500rpm. There is also a slight tapping noise at idle that sounds as though its coming from the injectors, but when I put my ear over to them to listen the sound seems to be coming from somewhere else.
Now, as far as the A/C part of the problem goes, there is a leak somewhere in the system that I havent had checked out yet, and I just had it recharged instead. When the compresser turns on, ie when i hit the AC button, a loud click/squeak noise occurs for about 1 second and then the car idles at around 500~400rpms or lower.
Then today, while I was driving on the interstate with my AC on, i glance down and notice the temperature gauge was beginning increase drastically. Fortunatly, I caught it just as it was on the right side of the temperature logo, and I immeaditly turned off the AC button. The temperatre began to drop back to its normal operating level. When i got home i let the engine cool off, the main fan operated normally when the car was off, and when i checked the coolant it appeard to be dark green-ish almost a black, but it was at the correct level.
My car has 193,000 miles, a stock radiator (god knows when it was last flushed), stock water pump, stock thermostat??, stock timing belt tensioner, 50k miles on timing belt, and a new alternater. literally granny driven for 130k miles. (got it from my friends gramma 2 years ago)
Anyone have an idea as to what caused the overheating issue?
The refrigerant that goes in the A/C system also contains lubricant for the A/C compressor. If you ran the A/C with the system discharged there is a chance that the compressor got hosed up, and now drags even with a fresh refrigerant charge.
As for the high pitched squeel, sounds like a bad bearing on the A/C clutch/pulley. You can comfirm this by if the noise is there with the A/C on or not. When the A/C is on, the clutch engages and doesn’t free wheel on that bearing. Or any of the other accessory bearings on that side (alternator, PS pump) could also be bad.
As for the ticking, prolly just valve noise.
Flush/change the coolant and check it again in 100 miles.
So by the compresser dragging from lack of lubrication, it put undue stress on the engine, and caused the heat to rise? And when i turned off the AC compresser it allowed it to free-wheel, removed the stress from the motor, and returned to normal operating conditions?
Thank you for your assistance, i will flush it this weekend and post back with an update!
In the meantime anyone else can feel free to contribute their $.02!!
using the AC will slightly decrease the efficiency of the cooling system, since the air flowing over the radiator will be first heated by the AC condensor. shouldn’t be enough to cause the car to overheat though.
do you think it would make it worse or better if i just cut off the AC belt that runs from the compressor to the crank (in addition to flushing the radiator system)? Cause to be honest, my AC was kick ass for the first 2 days and its sucked ever since, so I never really use it anyway…
and when i said overheated, i meant the needle was at the 3/4ths area on the stock gauge.
if the a/c pulley spins freely when it isnt on… there isnt a need to cut the belt… flush the radiator and change the thermostat (since its getting hot out again)
also i dont know when you plan on doing your timing belt… but if its probaly the original waterpump… get that changed on the next timing belt change as mine was original and had slight play at 115k miles
If you do decide to remove the belt, check the Idler pulley to see if the bearing in it is starting to grab instead of spinning. Probably not your problem because yours happens when the AC is on only, but my Idler pulley bearing went on me and put a super drag on the motor and finally smoked the belt up.
Well, after i got the upper radiator hose off to flush it, i decided to take a look at the radiator fins for wear and tear. Yeah, needless to say there were over 60% of the horizontal fins litterally missing! So, im going to replace the radiator next sunday as well as the thermostat and upper and lower radiator hoses. I also took the liberty of removing my AC condensor and high pressure hoses from the AC system.
Hopefully this will cure the problem. Ill try and post up a picture of what the radiator looks like after my finals tomorrow!!
Today i got the new radiator in, along with new hoses and a new thermostat. But when i opened my hood, i found that i had forgotten to reattach my negative battery cable since last sunday.
oops
But the positive terminal was still connected, the whole freakin week.
I also took the liberty of removing my AC lines, compressor, condensor, and the belt tensioner that was on the AC belt route.
After i hooked everything up, i went to start the car, and nothing. It cranked and cranked and cranked to no avail. My windows worked, my headlights worked, my radio even worked.
So, i decided to try jumpstarting it from my mom’s camry. Nothing happened.
ANY IDEAS!? could it be possible that my battery somehow drained from only having the positive cable on it?
Maybe I got water in the starter motor, since it is directly beneath the thermostat housing…
if u got water in the starter… and it would have damaged it… it wouldnt crank…
if all of your grounds are good im sure the car would run pretty good it would just ground thru other parts of the body…
only thing i could posably think with the negitive terminal not being hooked up… maybe if its a water battery it could have posably heated off some water?.. ive never experenced this long term and im sure not many people have
first you can do is pull a sparkplug and put it inside the wire and set it on top the valve cover… have somebody crank it and see if it sparks… you can also check for fuel presure and make sure that isnt a problem
radzer0- The battery is a sealed type from Oriely’s (is that how its spelled?)
I’ll have to try the spark plug test on monday, or later today after my final.
stateofbean- I disconnected both fans and removed them, I pulled out that little black plug on the compressor and removed it. While I was putting back in the thermostat housing cover I noticed that one of the two weather connectors on my distributor had come off its metal mount, but it wasn’t disconnected and none of the wires were broken.
I just had the distributor replaced about 8k miles ago, as well as the ignition control module (about 12k ago).
And now that the compressor is disconnected, the AC fan is running non-stop. I searched on this and I found conflicting stories. Some people said to connect that fan with the main radiator fan, and yet others said to remove it completely. What do you guys think? Id really like to keep it if I can, the more cooling the better.
So things to look for:
-Rouge wire that is disconnected
-Get battery checked at Oriely’s
-Check spark plugs for continuity
for future reference… the better batterys that last longer are the ones u add water…dont know why… but if you look at the higher end batterys at your parts stores they are all kind to add water
when you say the a/c fan is running non stop… is the car idled up like the a/c is on also?.. because there is a wire that if you put it to ground it kicks both fans on and idles the car up… on my car its tiewraped to the top of the radiator so i couldnt tell you where the plug goes… but its posable you somehow got it confused
Well, the battery checked out perfect, 99% capacity (prolly missin 1 percent from me cranking on it and using the lights and whatnot) I also replaced the spark plugs with OEM NGK’s.
Monday morning, im going to remove and inspect the starter motor and solenoid for any moisture or whatever.
As far as the fan thing… It happened as i was trying to crank the car. I still havent gotten it to run since the radiator install, and after i cranked it twice for about 3 seconds and let it rest, the AC compressor fan turned on and remained on for 30 min until i pulled the plug from it.
So now im still stuck with a car that is cranking and cranking but will not start up. Ive checked most of the connections, all fuses and relays and i simply cannot find anything. I dont really have any ideas as to what part would be the culprit and I am becoming quite frustrated with the whole deal.
Again, thank you so much Radzer0, as well as the other guys who posted, for your help, and if you have any ideas for where to look please PLEASE post em. LOL, im all ears.
One suggestion from me would be to check all your grounds in the associated areas that you removed things from. It may sound dumb but it’s a quick and easy thing to check, and if they aren’t right, it can def be a cause for your car to not start.
I’ve removed the A/C from both my tegs, and I mean everything. You don’t need the A/C fan still installed. It just takes up space and weight. As long as you have your other fan in there for the actual radiator, you’ll be fine. Of course make sure it’s still hooked up and works right. Or hardwire it to a convinient switch mounted inside the car so you can turn it on whenever
Oh and I also agree with state to check for spark. I mean it can’t hurt, and takes a few seconds.
Well, I have tracked down the reason for the car not starting. The fuel pump isnt coming on.
I checked out the fuel pump relay, just as the Haynes manual says to, and in all three scenarios the relay tested good. So, i decided to jump pin 5 to the fuel pump pin in the connector (No 7 i think?), and the fuel pump works, I could hear it turn on. All the fuses are good in the entire car. But when i connect the relay to its connector and try to start the car, no fuel pump and no car start.
So, im probably going to open up a new post with a relevant name on it so as not to get flamed, lol, you know how the OG’s can get ;)!
And BTW thank you so much to everyone who has helped!! I really apprectiated it!!
