A/C Issue.

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Plankton

Well-known member
Joined
May 22, 2012
Messages
45
Horrible noise coming from my iMiev when running A/C

Edit: No longer private

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oakCtXQsNsM

Anyone else have this happen?
 
Thanks for sharing the video
There have been many AC Failures recorded , can't remember if there has been a devoted thread to this .
I personally know of at least 4 including my 2012 Miev - seems that this happens right around the warranty expiration , - very costly- was quoted 3-4 thousand dollars to replace -

So a good saftey measure is to get it checked at the dealer just before the warranty expires
I think it's at 60,000 km (36,000 miles),

can possibly save you a lot of expense & aggravation.
The latest one I heard of from from last week had a broken AC support Bracket as well.

By the way the I Miev will not function with out the AC for cooling purposes.
 
Ouch! Sorry to hear that. Plankton, thanks for posting the video. The trend with air conditioner failures seems to be with i-MEVs residing in cold-weather climates. Hope it gets taken care of under warranty.
 
I recently replaced my ac compressor. Very similar issue the sound as not exactly the same but it ws very noisy when starting. It still worked but the noise on first start was alarming...

It was covered by warrenty.

If you are inclined you can go under the car and remove 2 clips tht hold a plastic plate that covers the compressor. You can then put your hand on the compressor and then start and stop it to confirm that the compressor is the problem.

If your in warrenty just bring it in and they should replace it no problem.

Don.....
 
I think it may be a broken AC support bracket like sandange mentioned. I can see something moving around when the A/C kicks in and its banging against something else, that's the noise. My dealer is out of my range and would need to be towed. If it were a support bracket what portion of warranty would that be under?
 
My ac problem was covered by the three year warranty. That should cover the bracket also.

If its a broken bracket and its out of warranty then perhaps you can buy the bracket and fix
It yourself...


Don......
 
Anyone considering this car I suggest you run in the other direction. 3 years old and i'm looking at $4000 in repairs for a defective A/C compressor
 
Mine is working fine, with 4 years and an half. No problems until now, with more then 50.000 miles. I think someone had that problem too, but get a new in the warranty, because the A/C is used in the fast charge, and with that it can be added to the electric parts of the vehicle. But that is not an usual problem until now in the i-MiEV. There are much more cases of battery failure reported.
 
Aw, Plankton, I don't suppose you want to re-title this thread? Your problem is far too specific for such a generalized statement, IMO.

Agree, $4000 is a ridiculous price to fix anything on the car… I simply wouldn't do it and would try to be creative. I take it this is after you had paid Mitsu $400 to replace the a/c bracket (which, I'm afraid, I wouldn't have done in the first place)?

Presumably you've escalated the issue with Mitsubishi, as it looked as though there was the beginning of a trend in cold-climate i-MiEVs?

Have you tried third-party aircon repair shops?

Used compressor?

I presume the heater works fine? What about when running the heater and dehumidify at the same time?

As someone who drove for over 40 years before getting a car with a/c in 2004 (Gen1 Honda Insight), I can't get excited over not having air conditioning. Even now, and despite our present heat wave, I drive our i-MiEVs with windows open and no a/c… but, then again, I don't live in Arizona or the US South or SouthEast…

Regarding care and feeding of automotive air conditioning units, I understand we should exercise the darn things periodically(?). Anything about NOT running the a/c in seriously-cold weather?

Plankton, on the previous thread you had been posting to, would you be kind enough to update us with your blow-by-blow tribulations with Mitsubishi regarding this problem?
A/C Issue http://myimiev.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=2711

Would you mind if I moved these posts into that thread?

Thanks, and good luck.
 
Personally, I think you must lead a charmed life - Not a divorce, never took a job which you wish you hadn't, never bought a house which turned out to be more than a fixer-upper, never a crappy investment which cost you a bundle? Your biggest 'mistake' *ever* was buying a car which had an A/C failure after 3+ years

You're pretty lucky, all in all

Don
 
Plankton,
What happened to the compressor? Keep in mind that these systems have a low pressure cutout switch that will keep your ac system from running if it's low on R-134A refrigerant. If there's no other obvious damage like leaks or odd sounds, etc. I would want to make sure it's not this. Also, make sure your condenser coil fan is working and that the coil is not clogged with derbis, etc. This will cause your high pressure cutout switch to open turning off your compressor.

Here's a nice pdf file of the i-miev air conditioning system
http://www.landrover.narod.ru/ELMOBIL/W2.pdf

It's a nice looking system but in general if a cutout switch opens, sometimes it may require a reset. (Maybe with a OBII scanner or mut-3?)
 
Lol. Not to make light of your plight, but I too share your pain.

I am trying to sell mine after three years and am only being offered $4,000 by a dealer. Maybe I can sell it to you for parts. Lol.
 
Yes. Mitsubishi's price for replacing your AC compressor is ridiculous, and Mitsubishi should be ashamed to charge so much to replace a part that fails after three years. I looked up the part number 7813A585 and it is over $3,000 on parts websites. You can buy a brand new Nissan Leaf AC compressor for under $700.
JoeS said:
Have you tried third-party aircon repair shops?
Used compressor?
Perhaps a good repair shop could repair the AC compressor, if it is the AC compressor. Auto dealer repair shops are notorious for not being able to diagnose a problem, and their solution is to just start replacing parts. The auto dealer should have checked the AC compressor when your AC compressor bracket was replaced recently. Did the banging compressor break the bracket?

There is a used i-MiEV AC compressor on eBay for $1,020.
There are several used Nissan Leaf AC compressors on eBay for $200-$400. Perhaps the Nissan Leaf AC compressor would work?
 
Don said:
Personally, I think you must lead a charmed life - Not a divorce, never took a job which you wish you hadn't, never bought a house which turned out to be more than a fixer-upper, never a crappy investment which cost you a bundle? Your biggest 'mistake' *ever* was buying a car which had an A/C failure after 3+ years

You're pretty lucky, all in all

Don

If you couldnt tell I was rather pissed off when I wrote that, still am actually. But title is a little on the dramatic side i'll admit
 
JoeS said:
Aw, Plankton, I don't suppose you want to re-title this thread? Your problem is far too specific for such a generalized statement, IMO.

Agree, $4000 is a ridiculous price to fix anything on the car… I simply wouldn't do it and would try to be creative. I take it this is after you had paid Mitsu $400 to replace the a/c bracket (which, I'm afraid, I wouldn't have done in the first place)?

Presumably you've escalated the issue with Mitsubishi, as it looked as though there was the beginning of a trend in cold-climate i-MiEVs?

Have you tried third-party aircon repair shops?

Used compressor?

I presume the heater works fine? What about when running the heater and dehumidify at the same time?

As someone who drove for over 40 years before getting a car with a/c in 2004 (Gen1 Honda Insight), I can't get excited over not having air conditioning. Even now, and despite our present heat wave, I drive our i-MiEVs with windows open and no a/c… but, then again, I don't live in Arizona or the US South or SouthEast…

Regarding care and feeding of automotive air conditioning units, I understand we should exercise the darn things periodically(?). Anything about NOT running the a/c in seriously-cold weather?

Plankton, on the previous thread you had been posting to, would you be kind enough to update us with your blow-by-blow tribulations with Mitsubishi regarding this problem?
A/C Issue http://myimiev.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=2711

Would you mind if I moved these posts into that thread?

Thanks, and good luck.

Sorry feel free to move to where it should be.

I'm going to attempt to escalate this with Mits. Any one know of any good resources on how to approach that?

The video I posted on the other thread ended up being a support bracket for the A/C compressor. It wouldn't surprise me if this is related. They are telling me the compressor is shorting out causing the car to shutdown.
 
ed5000 said:
Plankton,
What happened to the compressor? Keep in mind that these systems have a low pressure cutout switch that will keep your ac system from running if it's low on R-134A refrigerant. If there's no other obvious damage like leaks or odd sounds, etc. I would want to make sure it's not this. Also, make sure your condenser coil fan is working and that the coil is not clogged with derbis, etc. This will cause your high pressure cutout switch to open turning off your compressor.

Here's a nice pdf file of the i-miev air conditioning system
http://www.landrover.narod.ru/ELMOBIL/W2.pdf

It's a nice looking system but in general if a cutout switch opens, sometimes it may require a reset. (Maybe with a OBII scanner or mut-3?)

They're telling me it has an internal short which causes the entire car to shut down
 
RobertC said:
Yes. Mitsubishi's price for replacing your AC compressor is ridiculous, and Mitsubishi should be ashamed to charge so much to replace a part that fails after three years. I looked up the part number 7813A585 and it is over $3,000 on parts websites. You can buy a brand new Nissan Leaf AC compressor for under $700.
JoeS said:
Have you tried third-party aircon repair shops?
Used compressor?
Perhaps a good repair shop could repair the AC compressor, if it is the AC compressor. Auto dealer repair shops are notorious for not being able to diagnose a problem, and their solution is to just start replacing parts. The auto dealer should have checked the AC compressor when your AC compressor bracket was replaced recently. Did the banging compressor break the bracket?

There is a used i-MiEV AC compressor on eBay for $1,020.
There are several used Nissan Leaf AC compressors on eBay for $200-$400. Perhaps the Nissan Leaf AC compressor would work?

I was thinking the same thing about why not get it fixed instead of a whole new compressor. Thank you for pointing out the used one's on eBay thats an option for sure. One thing i'm afraid of is they dont really know wtf the problem is. The last time i had an issue where it wouldnt start they swapped out the charger. That didnt do it so they replaced the EV-ECU
 
Plankton said:
ed5000 said:
Plankton,
What happened to the compressor?
They're telling me it has an internal short which causes the entire car to shut down
Can they disconnect the AC compressor so that you can still run the car?

There are two connectors to the AC compressor.
Connector A-111 is three wires; 12V dc from a fuse, ground, and a control wire from the AC control unit.
Connector G-20 is the high voltage connector from the traction battery and has two wires.
Can they unplug G-20 and safe it off? (The open end will be at 360V dc.)

pXL7Y9Ql.png
 
RobertC said:
Plankton said:
ed5000 said:
Plankton,
What happened to the compressor?
They're telling me it has an internal short which causes the entire car to shut down
Can they disconnect the AC compressor so that you can still run the car?

There are two connectors to the AC compressor.
Connector A-111 is three wires; 12V dc from a fuse, ground, and a control wire from the AC control unit.
Connector G-20 is the high voltage connector from the traction battery and has two wires.
Can they unplug G-20 and safe it off? (The open end will be at 360V dc.)

pXL7Y9Ql.png

They told me its required but I'm going to look into this more. If it really isnt and winter coming I'd at least have time to save for the expense.
 
Plankton said:
...
They told me its required but I'm going to look into this more. If it really isnt and winter coming I'd at least have time to save for the expense.

That sounds all the more reason for an under-warranty repair--if you can't operate the battery-powered electric car without it, then it needs to be covered just like the battery...Otherwise you will operate the car without A/C and damage the battery when using the quick charging port.
 
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