[Andy]

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!

 

[Andy]

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...