Air con noise - any ideas ?
 

I have a growling noise when my aircon ( climate control version ) is running .
It seems to come from under the dash , but that may be my hearing , and sort of varies with engine speed , but not conclusively :shrug:
It is not present when I am just running the demist function . With the bonnet open , the noise does not appear to be coming from the compressor .
I am due for a regas , so I will get that done shortly and see if it helps , but I wondered if anyone else had had such a noise and had any ideas ? Is there anything under the dash which might growl on aircon setting but not on Econ setting ?
The aircon generally works well .

The common 'whaling'/whooping sound produced by the aircon system comes from the Thermal Transfer Valve (TXV) and indicates there's either insufficient gas or insufficient condenser capacity. The aircon service people should be able to diagnose it if it's other than a gas shortage.



TC

Thanks T-Cut , but I am familiar with the whooping noise you refer to , and this is not it :} The noise I have is a constant growling sound .

Hmm, that's needs explaining doesn't it?


TC

I had a similar growl, and Jules attended to it for me. Turned out to be a seized compressor. I was due for new belts after 190k miles from new, so he sorted it all at the same time.

Perhaps something to do with the re-circulation motor and flap ??---:shrug:

My aircon is working ok . I'm guessing that if your compressor was seized then yours wasn't working ?

I've had noise from the flap before , but not sure about the recirculation motor ? I will need to read up :}

The flap shuts off any intake of air from the outside.

I've done a bit of reading-up in Rave , and have learnt that in Auto mode the blower motor in the dash alters its speed according to vehicle speed , to maintain appropriate cooling through the evaporator . This does not apparently occur in Econ . Sounds interesting ? :shrug: I shall tinker with the blower speeds whilst driving in auto mode and see if this affects the noise ………………….
I'm not ruling out that it just needs a re-gas and fresh lubricant !