Somebody... SOMEwhere... SOMEhow... has to know how to solve this one. I've googled the daylights out of this and all I find are a few other people crying out in the wilderness like me. Here's the deal: My 2001 Eclipse's A/C blows nice, arctic air, then suddenly the indicator light begins to blink and the air turns warm. Something is telling the compressor to stop working. Why? A bad sensor? A slipping belt? A bad compressor (not likely, since the air is ice cold before this suddenly happens)?

Even my Mitsu dealership couldn't figure this one out. I call upon the compassion & mercy of everyone who knows anything about air conditioning...please help!

 

which 'indicator' light? If you mean the one thats part of the switch that turns the a/c on, I would suspect something wrong with that switch.

 

I had that happen with mine once, and it was because the AC motor wasn't working. Its a general warning saying that something with it is wrong. It can be a number of things, from your belt coming off, but that would cause your alternator from working so you would notice that not working right away. To your wires going into the AC motor are messed up, which happened with my friends(some how part of the plastic housing over the wires melted and I just had to clean off the connectors. I would check fuses, wire connections, and if thats not the problem, I would guess it needs to be either recharged or the AC motor itself is bad.

 

that light flashes when one of 2 things happens.
1) the compressor is slipping, or
2) it THINKS the compressor is slipping.
your eclipse has whats known as a "belt lock" controller. It monitors the compressor for slipping as it shares a belt with another componant. Mitsu assumes that if your belt is slipping, it may fail and that you would probably rather have your alternator or power steering (depending on the car) functioning. so they shut off the compressor.

either your belt is too loose or decayed to maintain tension, the compressor clutch is slipping, or something is electrically wrong to fool the system into thinking that's happening.


anything else you should tell us? Like has the belt been recently replaced? Are you driving in the rain a lot? has there been any recent AC work done?

 

Thanks for your help, everyone.

The belt was replaced last summer. I do no more driving in the rain than anyone else, although the car is rarely parked in a garage. The only A/C work I've had done is when the dealership recharged the air last summer, thinking that might do the trick.

If the problem is that the belt lock controller thinks the compressor is slipping, which electrical components should be tested for possible repair/replacement, and in what order?

 

you would need to check the revolution sensor on the compressor, and a few other inputs.
its pretty basic and simple.
how many miles on the car?

 

Thanks for sticking around and continuing the discussion.

I have 130k miles on the car. And now that I remember it, last summer the folks at the dealership changed the drive belt in addition to doing the A/C recharge (it needed a new belt anyway) in an effort to get this A/C problem fixed, but even replacing the drive belt didn't work. So it likely is electrical.

What will they have to do, exactly, to test/replace the revolution sensor? How about the other electrical components? My googling efforts seem to point toward the revolution sensor as the most likely culprit.

They're going to have my car all day tomorrow, and I don't want them to give up until they've pinpointed the problem and made my car a motorized igloo again. My Eclipse friggin' ROCKS, and I plan on driving it until it literally falls apart. In 130k miles, I have had zero problems with the engine, which to me means a lot!

How do I get them to keep going until they've succeeded? Do I put balloons on the car that say "You can do it!!" or bake them some brownies to keep their energy level up?

 

tell them they're suppost to be friggen professionals.. what are they, idiots?
dont pay them a diagnostic fee unless its correctly diagnosed.

 

my car suddenly lost the freezing air, so me and my dad went to autozone and got a FREON recharge kit
its really easy, its just a can that has freon in it, and u connect it to the plug in the A/C plumbing
after that, cold air again!!!!!

idk if u still have the problem or not, and the can of freon with an adapter costs about $13

daniel

 

Unbelievable. They checked everything, and the only possible explanation they could come up with was that a magnetic relay of some sort in the clutch had 7mm of a gap in it, when actually it's supposed to have only 4-5mm to be into specs. Something like that. So they're going to replace the A/C clutch next week (that's not a part they stock, and understandably so).