Rep Power: 0

Yesterday I was driving at 60mph turned on the ac and felt the car jerk a bit (no it has never happened before in the 12 years I have been driving it) . About 1 minute later it happened again 2 more times. I turned off the ac and it stopped. drove it back to work for an additional 30 miles and all was well with the ac off. Ran ac in parking lot and clutch engaged and disengaged well at low rpm and at about 3K rpm. Fan was running ok. Cold air was blowing out. This is a 12yo Alabama car with 240K miles, lots of ac duty in the summer. Is the original compressor finally checking out and going to its great reward in the car part sky? Or the IAC valve is needing a cleaning? I found an old thread from 7 years ago here that mentions that.

 
Rep Power: 209

Just a guess/possibilty: Compressor "might" be intermittently or initial phase of freezing up and the a/c belt is hindering the crank when compressor is engaged.

 
Rep Power: 517

Most of the time a compressor that's "on its way out" will be making a lot of internal noise while operating, which is usually a very different noise and condition a bad pulley bearing would make noise under.


If it's been quite a long time since the AC was last run, it might make a noticeable load on the engine upon initial engagement, but I expect it would act normally after that initial engagement.


If it's acting normal now, keep runnin that sucka.

 
Rep Power: 132

And keep running the A/C periodically to keep the PAG oil lubricating the system. I can't seem to get that into my father's thick skull - to him A/C means cold air so he does not use it at all in winter.