Rattle, chatter, no aircon?

ElegantSpoon · May 7, 2012

Afternoon all

Got a odd one for you. I've had a slight rattle / chattering noise start on the Pathy for a couple of months. It's not when I'm driving etc but when I'm out of gear just coasting to a stop.

It's gotten a little more frequent an I thought maybe it's something clutch related until I started her up yesterday and it was making the noise again right away but worse. As always stops right away when I drive off.

It's not made the noise since but this afternoon I tried the aircon and it's not working. I had it on low and it was just coolish air not the normal ice cold air.

Now do what's the chances of this being linked? It might be a simple re gass required but I don't want to waste money on it if not required!

Any tips on where to start looking into this would be spot on

Just for fun ....

lookskyward1 · May 7, 2012

Hiya Spoony, try getting your aircon re-gassed. Kwik Fit do it for about £40, I don't think they charge if it doesn't work. That'll be a good starting point, with a little bit of luck they might identify your mystery noise as well.

Good luck

ElegantSpoon · May 7, 2012

That sounds reasonable

Its a random noise... seem to be a few going around

eddmurphy · May 7, 2012

Sure it's not the aircon pump clutch? Does it click when u turn the switch for a/c on and off?

ElegantSpoon · May 7, 2012

I can have a look and see, where do I locate it?

I've not had the a/c on for a while so only tried it today while we were on the way back from tesco

eddmurphy · May 7, 2012

No idea tbh! However it's quite easy to spot.

Find the aux belts and look at all the extra pulleys/items.

You'll probably have, alternator, pas, a/c and maybe waterpump. Also a couple of tensioners.

On my d22 yd25 it's on the right, looking from the top first is the alternator with the a/c underneath.

When u use the a/c the pump clicking on and off is very obvious when pressed with the button.

Andy · May 9, 2012

spoons if your air con is low on gas, u have a leak. by law the leak has to be traced and repaired before any gas is used, this is when it can get expensive. kwik fit are not the best for this sort of thing as they will just stick gas in it and tell you its fixed! they are tyre fitters for christ sake. you need to find a car air con specialist theirs plenty of us about.

you should run the air con at least once a week to keep seals etc the system lubricated, but with the nav and pathys with climate control there should be no need to turn the air con off as its climate control...!

theres nothing to say that this is your problem, it might be coisident to another fault. this noise might well be somthing like the alternator pully!

tmagnet · May 9, 2012

I wouldn't use the aircon until you know if it's got gas/lubricant in it as you don't want to ruin the pump!

Mine's not long been repaired. One pipe under the drivers side had corroded, and the air con rad had also corroded and was leaking! The rad leak didn't show up until the air con specialist put their leak dye in and looked like wet patches on the rad after a few days use

Andy · May 9, 2012

tmagnet said:
I wouldn't use the aircon until you know if it's got gas/lubricant in it as you don't want to ruin the pump!

Mine's not long been repaired. One pipe under the drivers side had corroded, and the air con rad had also corroded and was leaking! The rad leak didn't show up until the air con specialist put their leak dye in and looked like wet patches on the rad after a few days use

wont ruin the compressor as theres a low pressure switch which is a safety device to stop such things happening. It wont allow the compressor to run if its short of gas. Nissan use compressors with a clutch system so the compressor will always be safe, its the likes of merc, audi, vw etc that are now using clutchless compressors, these run all the time but its the gubbings inside make it varible (varible valve, changes the displacment of the piston stroke or the rotor dependant of compressor type) so the compressor can run at certain percentages (0% 25% 50% 75% 100%) so if this type of system is short of gas the compressor is still running but the valve sits at the 0% position when a signal is given to it from the low pressure switch. :wink: if this type is system is left to long without any gas in the system, then somtimes compressors can be damaged...

ElegantSpoon · May 9, 2012

Thanks for the info it's too cold to have tried the aircon at the moment. I never turned it off until a few months back when it was staying cooler when at higher temps.

On the weekend I'll give it a try again and see of it goes freezing cold.

We have aircon engineers at work but that's on boats not cars but I might see what they think.

Rattle, chatter, no aircon?

ElegantSpoon

lookskyward1

ElegantSpoon

eddmurphy

ElegantSpoon

eddmurphy

Andy

tmagnet

Andy

ElegantSpoon

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