HELP! Car shakes when A/C is turned on

[jlee910]

Hi all.

My A/C used to work fine, and it just died two weeks ago. Thanks god that it survived over hot summer days.

It happened all of sudden. My car was parked in hot sunny shopping mall parking lot for an hour. After the shopping, when I and started the motor and turned on the A/C, I heard some weird noise and car starts to shake like it's dying soon. Since then, my A/C is gone
The car shakes and the green A/C light on the button blinks when I turn it on. Heater works fine and I am worry free until the next summer .

Did anybody experience same situation? What is wrong with my car?
Any inputs are really appreciated.

Thank you

[SleeperSolara]

Could be that your A/C compressor is about to die.

[dug320]

The refrigerant is insufficient in the system hence the compressor is not running. Why is the question.

You could go get a can of refrigerant to put a charge on the system and see if that turns the compressor on. If yes that you could recharge the system each time when the charge lowers from the leak and does not turn on the compressor. If you plan to sell the car you could put some stop leak in the system and recharge it. Stop leak will make a mess of the internals so that is why it gets sold.

OR you could do the right thing ...

Get a black light and have a look in the engine compartment in the dark. The oil in the refrigerant fluoresces yellow and the black light may help you pin point the source of the leak. Look closely at the hoses, connections for o-ring failure and look for a spray pattern coming from the compressor (oil ring shaft failure). Once identified you can either fix it yourself or take it to someone who can fix it knowing where the problem is located.

[99BlackSandv6]

Sounds to me that the compressor clutch gave out.
The clutch uses an electromagnet to engage the compressor.
When one fails the clutch on the comp. will sometimes skip/slip
(that would explain the shake and the weird noise).
Once the clutch fails you lose your A/C.
Or you could have had a catastrophic compressor failure.
This would also cause the shake and sound.
I would think it's less likely but also possible.

It would be strange for you to have a refrigerant blowout and not notice
any smell or residue. But go ahead and check for a blown hose
or seal under the hood like dug320 said.
But a refrigerant leak would not cause the car to shake or sound weird.

[jlee910]

Thank you so much for the inputs.
The car shakes every time I turn the A/C on. Sometimes it shakes when only heater is turned on to the windshield. I am planning to sell this car before upcoming summer. I will let everybody know any updates. Once again, thanks for the insights.

[99BlackSandv6]

Does the idle increase when you turn on the A/C?