306 Aircon compressor

D

DeKa

Well-known member
VIP Paid Subscriber
1000+ Posts
Fellow Frogger
Joined
May 22, 2001
Messages
3,674
Location
Sydney, NSW, Australia
Hi everyone,

In the last week my aircon's gone from cold to warm, and I can see through the glass peephole that it's all gone cloudy which I know means a regas.

The thing is, the compressor's been getting pretty groany as well, although not all the time. I've heard other 306's driving around with the same groaning noise. I've been told it's over $1000 for a new compressor! Does anyone know if this is for real? I'll probably just regas it and see what happens, but if I do need a new compressor I'll be hunting for a cheaper alternative.

Derek
 
Derek,

Those rotary compressors were a fairly common commodity and were produced by a company called Sankyo.
I've been a long time out of the trade now but it was always a case that replacements could be bought through a parts company called Actrol - Phillips who were wholesalers to the trade (officially) but who always run a "shopfront" type of operation. This meant of course that they sold to the general public (unofficially) at a price slightly dearer than trade but much cheaper than some of the Ned Kellys used to sell for.
Groaning air/con is usually a sign of a system needing a proper service. (ie) Leaks fixing, new filter/dryer, proper system evacuation, condensor cleaning of dust, leaves etc, fan and/or compressor mounts checked & replaced if necessary, fan bearings lubing or replacing and a recharge with gas.
New compressors are more of an exception than a rule to rectify air/con problems and in this case could just temporarily hide other things within the system which need servicing.

Alan S :D

[ 28 October 2001: Message edited by: Alan S ]
 
Originally posted by DeKa:
<STRONG>
Does anyone know any good places in Sydney for an aircon service?
</STRONG>
Click to expand...

I've used Parramatta Auto Cooling (Unit 4, 2 North Rocks Rd, Nth Parramatta - ph 9683 4722} for many years now to service/repair all the air cons on the pugs I've had.

I've found them to be straightforward - you can talk the detail of the problem with them. If possible they would quote to recondition a compressor compared to replacing it.

All depends on the condition of the system.

Last year they put a new compressor on an '86 BMW 318i which is my daughters. They did a great job and the system works fine.

Denis
 
hi deka,the 306 a/c comp have been a problem for a few seasons now,they get really noisy and just stop working.the orig unit is well over a thousand dollars.peugeot have done thier best best to make it hard to change over to anything else.in the early days nothing else fitted,they have unusual hoses and fittings,with small damper mufflers build in.i have been buying low km second hand ones and service them then refit,its been ok so far.its now getting easier,your local a/c expert should be able to match something up.they most likley will remove the mufflers and weld up the fittings to go straight on the back of the comp.good luck.stuart. :)

[ 01 November 2001: Message edited by: charles ]
 
Thanks Denis, Stuart and Pugrambo.

I've booked it in on Thursday at a place down the street from work (Granville). They could pronounce "Peugeot" and one of the other guys at work's used them before so should be right. I'll take that Sanden part number with me though.

The groaning's been very on and off - it'll groan for say an hour then won't groan again for 3 or 4 days. I guess it's not too bad so we'll just wait and see.

Thanks again!
Derek
 
The groaning's been very on and off - it'll groan for say an hour then won't groan again for 3 or 4 days. I guess it's not too bad so we'll just wait and see.
Click to expand...

My car has a similar symtom but only when my wifes is with me :rolleyes:

Cheers
Chris
 
Chris,

That's no good!
Dad's XM had the aircon completely rebuilt maybe 6 months ago...

Just so you know, the XM's perfect now. New transmission, and because the engine was out, new seals throughout and I'm sure there was something else done too.

It's up to 200 000km now and in a 3000km round trip to Victoria last week it didn't use one drop of oil.

How's yours going in general-other than the aircon?

Derek
 
Derek,

I was just having a bit of fun at my wifes expence :rolleyes:

The car is brilliant, no problems at the mo, air is getting a workout 36c in Bris over the last few days inside temp is very quickly brought down to very confortable :)
Bit of a plug for the guys at Chevron Alec and Ian, the only drama I did have split high pressure line at power steering they fixed with no argument :D It's only six months but I'm having a dream run.

Cheers
Chris
 
Thanks for your help everyone.

The aircon is VERRRRRRY cold now... a full service, new filter and regas and it's all good. The compressor hasn't groaned again.. yet.

The guy was amazed at how much gas the system took for a small car - wonder what that means?

Derek
 
The guy was amazed at how much gas the system took for a small car - wonder what that means?

Derek[/QB]
Click to expand...

You are going to get a big bill?

:rolleyes: :rolleyes:

Only joking; It's got to do with the design of the system. Same as household fridges; one will take say 235grms of gas and an identical fridge in another brand will take 450. A lot of factors come into it but going on the size of the vehicle it could be a fair assumption that you have a system designed for a tropical climate.
It is common in Europe for their export stuff to come with varying specifications for their refrigerators and in one case I once struck even their washing machines :eek:
In that case a heater was operating throughout the entire cycle to stop the washing machine turning into a giant Sno-cone machine. Turned out to be a machine designed for Alaska that found its way into a box bound for Australia and it ended up in Cairns; couldn't understand why it took about 3 hours to do a load of washing :confused:
That would be a logical explanation as they tend to over engineer everything so that they don't have any ramifications due to non-operation on a really hot day. Pity they didn't use the same logic on the CX air/con; it really sux :mad:

Alan S
 
Alan,

Well, it was $300... $190 of it was for the new filter. Big bill? Dunno never owned a car with aircon!

My car's got climate control aircon so set it to Auto 21 deg C and if the car is hot, when you get it it's almost like blast off for a few mins until it brings the temp down. I guess you're right - it's over engineered.

To be honest, I reckon it's probably the same aircon system as in dad's XM... in a MUCH smaller car. As far as I can see things look identical.

Derek
 
Derek,

Can I just ask, before you had the compressor
fixed was it groanning right through the rev
range? Could you hear it from idle through to
6000 rpm or was it at a specific rev range?

george
 
George,

I think you jinxed me! It groaned again for a while this morning.

As far as I can tell, when it groans it groans at all revs... other things start to get a bit noisy above 4000rpm. It's most noticeable as you move off from a standstill so say 1500-3000rpm?

It's intermittant though - it'll groan for a while (whether that is 5 mins or an hour) but then won't groan again for ages.

I'm not going to worry too much about it - at least it's cold now :cool:

If anyone's interested I had it serviced at T&J Auto Electrical in Blaxcell St Granville.

Derek
 
Derek & George,

Don't forget that these compressors are in a high vibration environment, hence a resonating can often sound like a groan. Also remember that these compressors work at some pretty astronomical head pressures particularly when the car is hot inside and the "new" gases work at higher pressures than the "old" gases used to. These days the pressures have a safety control fitted to them that starts cutting things out once the pressures hit a certain thing, but I can remember in years gone by on the old R-12 systems with no HP cut outs seeing one send the needle off the end of my gauge (450psi) one day so imagine how that compressor would have sounded at 3500rpm
:eek:
I really don't think you've got any worries as your air/con guys sound as though they know where its all at & would have picked up a problem if it existed. Could be that it's coming from the LP side when the car is down to temp.
BTW, where was the leak which caused it to lose temperature in the first place? If that wasn't found & fixed, keep an eye on your temp and get it back to them ASAP if the temperature starts to go back :D

Alan S
 
Alan,

I'm not too worried about it as I said - it comes and goes.

I didn't actually ask where the leak was. I don't know if the aircon had ever been serviced to be honest and there were no stickers under the bonnet anywhere as you would normally expect.

I'll watch the temperature and see how it goes. Thanks for your help

Derek
 
Derek,
the last thing that I wanted to do is
jinx you mate. Thanks for the info, bit I think my car's groan is different to yours.
I can hear mine at 3000 to 3500 RPM only when
the engine is cold. When I was reading about
your problem that's when I thought my car's
groan could be coming from the a/c compressor. But I do not think it's that any
more.

Thanks
george :confused:
 
the groan you people talk about, i think i have something similar in my car. I only hear it if the fan is set to the climate control, not when its in the neutral setting. It would be fine until the car is stationary, then a sort of rumble will start, like a resonating sound as alan suggested. Does something switch on when it gets a little hot such as fans for the aircon? would this be the noisy thing? It sort of sounds like the car is idling funny
 
Hiya,

Sorry about dredging up a year old thread, but it contains relevant information, and it is handy keeping this sort of stuff in the one thread.

My compressor has starting growling quite loudly all of a sudden, and I was wondering if anyone had had any new experiences with fixing the problem.

Has anyone had theirs repaired recently? Are you happy with it?

I replaced the compressor in my previous 306, and I got royally screwed. It cost me $1300 all up. Thankfully, these idiots have gone out of business now.

Brendan
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top