308 aircon compressor question.

Krammig

Member
Tadpole
Joined
Jun 6, 2018
Messages
65
Location
Gold Coast
Thanks for reading.

308 2010 Petrol auto

Supposedly the compressor is "seized" but I'm not sure I believe it so would appreciate your thoughts.

I'm aware we have a slow leak in the aircon system somewhere. This is due to a regas about 10 months ago and over the past month it has progressively been blowing less cold. It now just blows ambient temp air.
I took the car to an aircon and radiator service shop today.

I was told the compressor is seized based on, ..
the centre nut on the flywheel was not turning with the wheel. ?

The guy explained, which I know, that some cars use a clutch mechanism and only pump when the clutch is engaged.
Others spin and are effectively pumping all the time but only allow gas into the compressor when needed. Like ours.
Now supposedly there is the centre shift, which he calls the link, that rotates constantly, but if something goes wrong internally, this link shaft snaps intentionally so the flywheel can keep spinning with the belt so as not to interrupt the other components that rely on the belt turning.

Hope I'm making sense so far.

So what he said is, because the centre bolt in the flywheel is stationary while the flywheel is spinning with the belt, the compressor must be seized up and needs to be replaced.

What I'm wondering though, is if there is no gas in the system, would the appropriate sensors have detected this and thus have disengaged the compressor altogether. ?

So if we just regas the system, the sensors will detect pressure, and the compressor will start working again ?

Or, is what this bloke is telling me, that because the centre bolt is not spinning when the flywheel is spinning, means the compressor is seized ?

Thanks
 
I have a good s/h replacement compressor for the series1 308 2007 - 2010 i waa going to hold on to as a spare.
 
UPDATE ;

Went to a different company who came back and said it was already fully gassed (contrary to what the first chap said who implied there was leak and no gas).

They confirm the compress was no good and quoted $1,320 to replace the compressor with a new one, also the filter, a flush, and reclaimed the existing gas. (by the way the first chap quoted $4,000 and a week do fix)

My wife is very happy as it is running very cold. You know the saying, happy wife happy life.

Thanks for all the input.
Cheers
 
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