4.2 A/c Issue - Diagnosis/clutch Control Relay Location

[X50]

Hi, I'm hoping someone will be able to shed some light on an a/c issue my wife's 2003 2.0 petrol has been experiencing. Over the last week the a/c light has started to blink, sometimes after a few minutes, sometimes after half an hour or more. At this point the compressor disengages and we get no cold air.

The issue appears heat related i.e. over the last few week the ambient temperature has increased each day culminating in the a/c not working at all yesterday when outside temps hot 35c, yet it did late last night when temps had come down.

The local toyota dealer has regassed the system a few days ago with no probelms/leaks deteced. The car has since been back in for diagnostics and we have been told the cause could be one of 2 things:

1. Clutch control relay (£90);

2. Clutch control assemby - the electronic part of the end of the compressor (£500).

Can anyone confirm where the clutch control relay is located as I'd like to test it and based on my research 4.2's don't have a a/c relay (magentic clutch relay) unlike other Toyota models.

Thanks

P.S. any other thoughts on possible causes how to test welcomed!

[Grumpy stumpy]

Had similar problem with mine a couple years back, had a aircon expert who was semi retired look at it and found a clutch fault on the compressor itself, he replaced a small shim with a different size and as good as new total bill for everything was £40. He told me that most places will quote that the clutches can't be repaired but he said they can and did.

The shim was basically the size of a 6mm washer. He accessed the compressor from drivers side wheel arch if I recall.

Hopefully something similar for you.

[john21245]

When you say replaced a shim, was this to compensate for general wear or was one shim in particular worn? Can the shims be obtained from Toyota?

Thanks, John.

[Grumpy stumpy]

Yes I believe one was worn so not allowing the clutch to engage properly when hot, not sure where he got the shim/washer from I,m afraid but didn't order it or go get one , must of had it already, my guess it's nothing special just a slightly different size in thickness to original . The original just looks like a standard washer to me. General wear and tear.

[john21245]

Thanks for the reply. I think I'll just use a standard washer, I,ve got nothing to lose as it's not working now.

[Grumpy stumpy]

Absolutely mate worth a go. He just said that it would work when you first pushed button but if stopped and put back on the clutch would not engage again as heated up , common problem when worn, he only replaced one washer and gave me the old one shown in picture in small bag. Hope you get it sorted mate.

[john21245]

This evening I got around to the air conditioning on my son's rav to try the solution suggested by Grumpy stumpy. After a lot of trial and error it looks like I have a fix. I did several unnecessary things so if anyone is interested this is the easy way to go about it.

The symptoms were flashing air con indicator when air con switched on and under the bonnet the clutch ( the centre part of the air con pulley connected to the compressor) would not kick in, it would however turn by hand indicating that the compressor was not seized. He had it regassed as that was the first thought( low gas).

To gain access I jacked up the front of the car and removed the offside front wheel and then removed four fixings on the inner wing panel to give me access to the clutch end of the compressorl.This panel goes across the front of the car but is flexible so can be just bent down for sufficient access.

I removed the bolt from the centre of the clutch (10mm socket) but as the clutch was free to turn I held it with a oil filter wrench- worked well.

I then removed the clutch plate from the compressor shaft. This was the hardest part as it is a tight fit splined shaft, but by prying evenly on opposite sides with two large flat screwdrivers it finally popped off.The spacers shown in Grumpys excellent diagram also came off, so don't lose them. On our Rav there was only one spacer, which confused me somewhat but after some research I found that the spacers are to maintain an air gap between the clutch and driven pulley when the air con is off. This air gap should be about 25 thou ( 0.65mm ). I just tried different washers to attain this gap until the clutch kicked in.The clutch plate was easy to remove after the initial removal making trial and error easy.

[BJB]

John

Its good to hear how some of us can still take something to pieces on a car and get it working again. Car mechanics like it used to be.

Bryan

[Grumpy stumpy]

Well done John you must of done what the retired aircon man done for me, saved yourself a fortune as I did, glad diagram was some help and you managed to get it sorted .

[Notebook]

Could you see that the clutch wasn’t engaging with the bonnet up

On 20/07/2015 at 8:57 PM, john21245 said:

This evening I got around to the air conditioning on my son's rav to try the solution suggested by Grumpy stumpy. After a lot of trial and error it looks like I have a fix. I did several unnecessary things so if anyone is interested this is the easy way to go about it.

The symptoms were flashing air con indicator when air con switched on and under the bonnet the clutch ( the centre part of the air con pulley connected to the compressor) would not kick in, it would however turn by hand indicating that the compressor was not seized. He had it regassed as that was the first thought( low gas).

To gain access I jacked up the front of the car and removed the offside front wheel and then removed four fixings on the inner wing panel to give me access to the clutch end of the compressorl.This panel goes across the front of the car but is flexible so can be just bent down for sufficient access.

I removed the bolt from the centre of the clutch (10mm socket) but as the clutch was free to turn I held it with a oil filter wrench- worked well.

I then removed the clutch plate from the compressor shaft. This was the hardest part as it is a tight fit splined shaft, but by prying evenly on opposite sides with two large flat screwdrivers it finally popped off.The spacers shown in Grumpys excellent diagram also came off, so don't lose them. On our Rav there was only one spacer, which confused me somewhat but after some research I found that the spacers are to maintain an air gap between the clutch and driven pulley when the air con is off. This air gap should be about 25 thou ( 0.65mm ). I just tried different washers to attain this gap until the clutch kicked in.The clutch plate was easy to remove after the initial removal making trial and error easy.

 

[Notebook]

On 7/20/2015 at 8:57 PM, john21245 said:

This evening I got around to the air conditioning on my son's rav to try the solution suggested by Grumpy stumpy. After a lot of trial and error it looks like I have a fix. I did several unnecessary things so if anyone is interested this is the easy way to go about it.

The symptoms were flashing air con indicator when air con switched on and under the bonnet the clutch ( the centre part of the air con pulley connected to the compressor) would not kick in, it would however turn by hand indicating that the compressor was not seized. He had it regassed as that was the first thought( low gas).

To gain access I jacked up the front of the car and removed the offside front wheel and then removed four fixings on the inner wing panel to give me access to the clutch end of the compressorl.This panel goes across the front of the car but is flexible so can be just bent down for sufficient access.

I removed the bolt from the centre of the clutch (10mm socket) but as the clutch was free to turn I held it with a oil filter wrench- worked well.

I then removed the clutch plate from the compressor shaft. This was the hardest part as it is a tight fit splined shaft, but by prying evenly on opposite sides with two large flat screwdrivers it finally popped off.The spacers shown in Grumpys excellent diagram also came off, so don't lose them. On our Rav there was only one spacer, which confused me somewhat but after some research I found that the spacers are to maintain an air gap between the clutch and driven pulley when the air con is off. This air gap should be about 25 thou ( 0.65mm ). I just tried different washers to attain this gap until the clutch kicked in.The clutch plate was easy to remove after the initial removal making trial and error easy.

Could someone draw exactly where the gap is measured. Thanks