Auto AC Compressor Clutch Failure

What the insurance company should or will pay is buried in the cryptic verbiage of the contract you signed with the insurance company. They have their ideas as to what it means and I'm certain you have a different understanding what it means. I recommend that that you take this as a lesson of the value of an extended warranty insurance policy.

From a strictly legal perspective, you had a labor warranty interval after the two year old repair at the Ford dealership, if you did not bring the vehicle back during this time and complain that the cooling fan never engaged you have no legal recourse. But even if you brought it back many times to the Ford dealership the repair warranty interval is over, so it will be difficult to force a settlement with Ford.

I did bring the vehicle back just about a year ago to the ford dealership and they replaced the fan blades and motor. I remember that they bumped the motor and it ran. I am waiting on the dealer to find the root cause to the fan never running. I believe it is the wire that closed the relay. The dealer says there is a lot of sloppy welding around the wiring harness.

Good news! The insurance adjuster called me back after 30min of debating that that the compressor transfers the load from the compressor to the pulley to drive belt. He said that they will pay for %100 of the repair if the root cause of the fan failure is associated to bad repair job done by the Ford dealer.

I would also like to note, I do not feel like all Ford dealers do shoddy work, just this particular one.

Is a "labor warranty interval" a legal term? (I tried googling for it.)

I presume that the "labor warranty interval" (or the limit on the "labor warranty interval") is established by the warranty terms? And thus it could be longer than, for example, two years?

You took a Subaru to a Ford dealer....

Yes.. Yes... Never again. It was only because it was the only insurer approved repair shop within a reasonable distance at the time of the repair.

Worthy of note, the insurance company no longer honors them as an approved repair shop and the somewhat local Subaru Dealer now is.

What repair was done by the Ford dealer?

The condenser fan runs off a high pressure switch and should come on at a pre-determined # usually @220psi. Some use the clutch control circuit to turn on the fan, with the latter when the a/c compressor is on the fan is on.

Most systems use a low pressure switch to disengage the compressor when the system is low on freon. This prevents failure due to lack of lubrication.
The cycling of the compressor is controlled by the low pressure switch not the high pressure switch which controls the condenser fan. in other words the low pressure switch sees approx 30 psi (running) and cycles the compressor off to prevent evaporator freeze up. It also acts as a low charge switch as mentioned above.

The failure of the condenser fan will cause high pressure in the system that will eventually pop the high pressure valve on the compressor and vent all refrigerant to the air. It is unlikely that the condenser fan failure caused the compressor failure but remotely possible.

The compressor clutch cycles off and on normally and causes no damage to the compressor during it's lifetime. Insurance companies usually have no clue how the system works let alone as how to correctly service on so good luck with them. If you could scan and send me the correct wiring diagram for your A/C system I will review it and give you some more ideas. Japanese cars have used some really junk electrical relays in the past and my best guess is that the condenser fan relay failed.

Good luck Sundog.

Thanks Sundog

The repair originally was a repair needed from a front end collision. It was noted about a year later that the condensor fan had some damage to it and did not run. I then got this repaired.

During one of the two repairs, some welding was done close to the wiring harness and opened the relay circuit that would run the motor for the condensor fan (this was just found a week ago by the Subaru dealer).

The dealer did mention that there was a high pressure switch that disengages the clutch when the pressure gets too high.

Since the failure of the condensor fan was caused by sloppy welding, the insurance company paid for everything. It is worthy of note that the system was fully charged before the final repair took place.

Nesterline:

Wahoo!

Getting the insurance co's to pay up is a hard road in these days. Glad to hear your got the car repaired. I was just guessing on the circuitry but have 40 years of exper. I actually worked for the GM CCOT (cycling clutch orifice tube) system patent holder, and filed 3 of my own ideas. I designed the Cadillac touch control screen and the stepper motor blend door system. Gm uses several wiring and control circuits. The best is the one I mentioned, using suction side compressor cycling and pressure operated fan control. It is interesting that Subi chose what they did. It shows concern for the customer and their investment. This is something GM could care less about.

Welding on most newer cars is hard. The list of precautions is long and serious, as you know now. I guess the Ford guy just didn't give a ----.

Happy for you

Sundog