[jdellorusso]

Hello! Hoping to get more involved in this forum now that I own an 06 Forester.

My problem is that I am pretty sure my A/C Compressor is bad. It is too expensive for me to fix right now and we are going into winter regardless. The problem is that the A/C fuse in the interior fuse box continues to blow when I turn my car on and I get no air coming through the vents. I do need heat for the coming winter and was wondering if there was a way to disconnect the compressor?

How would I go about disconnecting the compressor and would this be okay until next summer? Or should I bite the bullet and replace the compressor. I am just beginning to work on my car so would this be a fix I would be able to do myself?

Thank you guys for any help you can give!

 

[whobodym]

are you saying that your HVAC fan is not running? if your compressor is broken and the mode selector is in the correct Vent position, you would get too-warm normal-airflow, not no air, from the dash vents, and you would still feel a difference between the various fan speeds. the other factor to consider is that operating a/c is a significant contributor to a comfortable, clear-windows cabin in rainy weather when the temperatures are in the 40s-60s F (the air is being both cooled and heated to do this, with condensed humidity dumped down the drain tube to the pavement). you will definitely fog up much more without proper a/c function, and feel much more clammy. your car is set up to always run a/c automatically when in Defrost, whether or not the "A/C" light is lit, so you don't want to have the situation where you can't switch on Defrost airflow without blowing fuses. I believe the "floor + def" mode doesn't run the compressor necessarily, but that would be a much-too-weak way of clearing your cool-season windshield.

 

[jdellorusso]

Is the HVAC Fan the same as the blower fan? When I replace the 15 A fuse for A/C the air will blow out of the dash vents if electrical is turned on. When I start the car the fuse will blow and I get no more air. I recently had a “growling noise“ that a local mechanic said was the compressor (unsure if I trust him) and recently it got much louder but I heard a squeak and the noise is gone but no air through the vents.

how “hard” is replacing a compressor? I can imagine you need a lot of specialty tools.
Thanks a ton

 

[whobodym]

@jdellorusso yes, when I said HVAC ("heating ventilation air conditioning", a standard term for cars and buildings) fan I meant the same thing as the blower for the interior heat/def/ac. I have no idea whether the a/c compressor is on the same electrical circuit as the compressor or not, but you could check that by seeing under your hood when the blower fuse is blown, does the compressor clutch still engage and disengage? It's both visible and audible. A/C compressors can be still in fine shape themselves, but make funny noises and/or air conditioning not cool, if you are low on refrigerant and/or the drive belt is loose. In any case, you definitely sound like you have a blower fan that cannot be depended on, and if you live anywhere where temperatures fall below 60F and/or it rains, you MUST fix your blower fan problem to get through the winter, whether or not you have an a/c compressor problem also.

as for replacing an a/c compressor, you need the specialty tools for handling refrigerant (lots of pressure gauges, valves, hoses, etc.) I would never consider buying that for myself; I draw my own limit at oil changes / filters / spark plugs / brake pads / etc. But more importantly, I think it's the cart before the horse in terms of solving your current problem.

Edit - oops, sorry, I meant "... I have no idea whether the a/c compressor is on the same electrical circuit as the blower or not..."

 

[jdellorusso]

Thanks for the help, sorry for the ignorance. I am just starting to work on my car and figure since this system isn't crucial to the car running then it is a good place to start.

If it is the blower fan that is not dependable, how to I get it to running again? Non of the heater fuses are blowing but the A/C fuse blows which then stops my blower fan from running. I do not have A/C turned on when this happens. Seems like this fuse is connected to the blower fan for some reason. Once again I am very new to this so sorry for not understanding a lot of the basic stuff

Thanks!

 

[2.5x_sleeper]

@jdellorusso welcome to the forum from Oregon!

Take a look at this thread, especially if your 2006 is an X model with the manual climate controls.

('03-'05) - 2003 - Blower motor melts wires off!

I have a 2003 Forester, about 3 years ago it melted the wires on the blower motor. I replaced the melted wires only to have it do the samething. So I searched around here and decided I needed to replace the blower motor. I replaced it and all was good for a short time. Now its started doing...

www.subaruforester.org

Also...

For the best forum experience, we recommend completing your "Account Details". The optional information you enter there will display when members click "About" in your forum profile. You can also create a custom "Signature" that will display every time you make a forum post. The optional additional information you provide could mean getting forum member replies, or not.

Bobby...

['07 FSXT Member Journal] ['03 X Member Journal]

 

[whobodym]

I'm better at understanding how car designs work when they are AOK, than I am at diagnosing problems when they're not OK - especially electrical problems. But I do remember one thing now that MIGHT relate to your symptom -- air conditioning systems are designed to require that the blower be operating, in order to engage. (otherwise, a cold evaporator with no airflow over it would just produce a big ice cube inside your dashboard, and no cold air for you). You need to do (or get) an electrical diagnosis. Good luck - and don't worry about apologizing - that's how we learn all this stuff

 

[GuusV]

If you're not interested in having your AC working and just want to drive it for the winter without AC and deal with it next year, you could just remove the AC belt. It has its own tensioner and belt.
It could be the clutch on the AC compressor. There's a little plug on top of the AC compressor that is connected to the clutch. You can unplug that as well.

Neither of those (unplugging the AC clutch connector, removing the AC compressor belt) should affect other operations in the car.