Air conditioning electrical

Automobile air conditioning electrical problems are not as common as A/C leaking problems, but I have seen them enough to warrant a page about it.

Pictured to the right are the three components of an electronic compressor clutch.

The a/c pulley, compressor clutch coil and the compressor clutch itself that locks the unit to the belt driven pulley.

The complete operation is described in more detail below.

More than once I have approached a vehicle with an air conditioning system not working and wiggled a connector to only hear the A/C clutch engage.

As I spoke about before on previous pages, a good visual inspection is the right place to start with most car problems.

Below I will give you some things that you can look for and a few tips for electrical diagnosis on automotive air-conditioning systems.

Automotive air conditioning electrical

Sometimes this is not even due to the component itself but is caused instead by a bad connection or corrosion that has built up on the leads.

The air conditioning systems on today’s automobiles are loaded with switches. A few examples would be a low-pressure cut off switch, high pressure cutoff switch, power steering cut off switch, wide open throttle cut out switch.

And of course the Interior switches such as the AC on and off switch and the blower control, which is also a switch. If any of these switches malfunction, or there is a poor contact to the switch directly.

Your complaint will be the air-conditioning system does not work at all. Remember, you should always consult your car repair manuals for the specifics of testing your system on your particular vehicle.

Air conditioning electrical components

The compressor clutch is an electromagnetic unit that is energized by a coil that actually pulls the clutch in to grip against the belt driven air-conditioning pulley.

You can test the electrical portion of the compressor clutch with an ohmmeter. There will be a specific resistance value for your vehicle.

But often I will find the compressor clutch coil will have an open in it and that is easily tested with a multimeter. If there is no resistance value registered on the meter (or OL) then this is most likely your problem.

Replacing the compressor clutch can be a touchy operation. The gap between the clutch material and the air-conditioning pulley is very critical.

In most cases this air gap should be between .35 mm and .85 mm. Again, this will vary with your model automobile. But my point of this discussion is if the air gap is too large. The clutch will slip when it is engaged.

If the air gap is too small the clutch material will start to wear quickly as it will not fully release from the compressor pulley as it spins.



Give this auto air conditioning electrical problems resource page a Then check out the helpful links that follow.



I have a page that describes not only how your car removes the heat from the passenger compartment, but also shows a good diagram of how automobile air conditioning works.



These automotive air-conditioning electrical problems are just a few of the common ones I have seen recently. You may find that there is a lot that can go wrong with your car's air-conditioning.

But again, the best way to diagnose a problem is to understand how the system works. This next link will take you from air conditioning electrical problems to automotive air page



Take a look trough both of my car repair websites at the same time.

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You can also learn more about the car mechanic that built it and why he thinks that some people can perform their own Diy automotive repairs