Air Conditioning Compressor Question
 

Evening all

Hope everyone is keeping well?

I have a strange problem with my air conditioning compressor. When i turn the a/c on, the clutch on the compressor engages for approx 10 seconds, cuts off for approx 10 sec, then turns back on for 10 secs, and then cycles like that continually.

I have checked the clutch gap and it is correct at 0.3mm, so would welcome some advice on what could be causing the problem?

Thanks
James

I think this can be caused by low gas, may need recharging

Perfect thankyou :)

This is perfectly normal behavior for an a/c compressor, the system is designed to maintain a certain pressure and it does this by 'cycling' the compressor on and off which also saves fuel use. The pauses between on/off vary greatly according to the load on the system - big pauses in winter and short ones in summer heavy traffic etc. If a compressor is running continuously then that is an indication of low gas and the compressor scavenging for refrigerant (basically struggling to achieve the required pressure).

The best home-test for an a/c systems health is to check the air temp at the vents with the system set to the lowest temperature, a good indicator is a steady 5 to 8 deg C at the vents.

Great thankyou, i'll test the temp and hopefully show everything is ok :)