A/C compressor clutch gap

[SaabKen]

Awhile back I posted about my A/C acting sporadically (blower works, but cooling sometimes stop abruptly). Some of you suggested the culprit could be the compressor clutch gap being too wide, hence not allowing the clutch to engage under too-warm conditions.

I was at my Saab indie this week. He checked all parts of the A/C system (hoses, R134a level, pressure, evaporator/condensor, relay, expansion valve) and all seemed perfectly normal. I asked him about the clutch gap, and he insists he's never seen one go out of factory range (0.4mm - 0.8mm (0.016" - 0.031") for the Sanden compressor and 0.3mm - 0.6mm (0.012" - 0.024") for the Seiko compressor)). But he checked the gap anyway and whoa, it was at 0.035" (Seiko), so 0.011" more than the large end of the acceptable range. He'll get to it later this week when he does some other minor fixes to my car.

So thanks for all your help.

[SaabKen]

Sorry to bump this post.

Indie adjusted the clutch gap on my Seiko compressor down to 0.014". Now the ACC seems to work normally the way I remember it when I first got the car. Adjustments to the ACC cabin temp now causes the fan to vary its speeds much more finely, and the speed variations continue as the cabin temp changes over time. This didn't happen over the recent years (when ACC on AUTO), when the blower motor seemed to have "lost" the ability to fine tune its variable speed. I suspect the growing gap had something to do with it, as all other parts of the HVAC system have checked out normally.

The irony is now with a normal A/C cooling restored, the weather has already begun to cool off

Originally Posted by SaabKen

Awhile back I posted about my A/C acting sporadically (blower works, but cooling sometimes stop abruptly). Some of you suggested the culprit could be the compressor clutch gap being too wide, hence not allowing the clutch to engage under too-warm conditions.

I was at my Saab indie this week. He checked all parts of the A/C system (hoses, R134a level, pressure, evaporator/condensor, relay, expansion valve) and all seemed perfectly normal. I asked him about the clutch gap, and he insists he's never seen one go out of factory range (0.4mm - 0.8mm (0.016" - 0.031") for the Sanden compressor and 0.3mm - 0.6mm (0.012" - 0.024") for the Seiko compressor)). But he checked the gap anyway and whoa, it was at 0.035" (Seiko), so 0.011" more than the large end of the acceptable range. He'll get to it later this week when he does some other minor fixes to my car.

So thanks for all your help.

[djtaylor]

Originally Posted by SaabKen

This didn't happen over the recent years (when ACC on AUTO), when the blower motor seemed to have "lost" the ability to fine tune its variable speed. I suspect the growing gap had something to do with it, as all other parts of the HVAC system have checked out normally.

I can't see how that would affect it, are you sure it's not the same as how much better the car goes after a polish? Still, either way, as long as it's working as you want.

The irony is now with a normal A/C cooling restored, the weather has already begun to cool off

I had my heated seat on the other day in this fine English summer.

[SaabKen]

Originally Posted by djtaylor

I can't see how that would affect it, are you sure it's not the same as how much better the car goes after a polish?

Maybe. I do gain 25% better gas mileage after a good polish. And boost increases dramatically too. The correlation is irrefutible !

Reminds me of this piece:

http://www.autoblog.com/2006/05/10/will-ventilated-seats-improve-mpg/