Air Conditioning Compressor problem

i have not looked at all the posts but have you checked the clutch to see how much resistance is in it. i have changed 2 in the last week. both were the same thing the drivers fan didnt work and the clutch was bad. one was open and the other had 27 mega ohms. changed both and all is well.

ps. the male plug i am in need of is identified as:

Germany
1J0 973 722
>PBT<
FEP
6/7 1300

its in perfect condition except for the sheared wires at the face of the plug... i believe a trip to the junk yard is my only solution

blackjet said:

ps. the male plug i am in need of is identified as:
...
1J0 973 722
...
its in perfect condition except for the sheared wires at the face of the plug... i believe a trip to the junk yard is my only solution

Click to expand...

Why?

World Impex or your local stealership can get the connector and repair wires for it.

the plug is in good order, im attmepting to disassemble it with dentistry tools. got the purple peice out and the orange gasket but have yet to discover the next step, any words of advice?

Sounds like you need electrical terminal tools to remove the individual connectors. See if anyone in your area has a set you can borrow or talk to member penclnck about his excellent tools.

Wanted to add to this thread because info within it was helpful. I have an 02 with 265K miles, original AC, never touched. Today while driving home in traffic within about a 10 minutes period over one hour into the drive, I could not get the AC to blow cool air after having been fine for at least a 30 minute cooling duration. Looking in this thread I saw the three green fuses above the battery mentioned. I found the one closest to the center of the engine compartment with a bad rear terminal. They are 30 amp fuses same dimension but different than your typical 30 amp full size blade fuse.

The fuse appeared not to have burned like you will find a typical bad 'blown fuse'. That rear blade only was dark in color and somewhat pitted. The plastic in the fuse holder around it appeared to have some mild melting around that blade only. I have never encountered a fuse that looks like this. I borrowed what I believe is the rear compartment power 30 amp fuse, put it in and out a few times and left it in. I always got the dash switch AC light on and it still worked. The large fan that comes on all the time the AC is on was not coming on, but now did and the ac clutch engaged which it had not before, and cooling is normal.

I was puzzled as there was no sign of Freon loss under the hood. I do believe I smelled the results of electrical arcing when this thing finally gave up.

Any idea why a single black corroded looking blade on a fuse like this? I cannot see what is down in the receiving end of the fuse assembly, but seems it cant be that bad given the AC works fine now. I will heat it up to high temps tomorrow. Could this just be the result of the end of service life for a blade fuse that has been highly loaded while in use for many years? How many amps typically passed through that fuse? Could it be the result of a metal impurity or flaw that finally came to fruition after 14 years and 265K miles?

Not at all about the metal impurity... It is your fans or fan controller. BOTH fans need to be spinning at the same speed. Read this thread:

http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=242699

and you will find the procedure. It basically is: key on, engine off, AC button pressed. If both fans are not spinning in slow (which actually is still pretty fast) then replace offending fan. If one or both fans shows signs of melting down, replace fan controller and fan.

I ran the system continuously on the way home for two hours, about 70* ambient 50/50 sunshine and clear. Cooling was good and normal.

I opened the hood prior to shut down and saw both fans turning. I reached in and shut down the ac via the normal dash switch. Neither fan was turning. I turned AC back on and both fans were spinning.

I was under the impression only the large (driver side) fan had to spin with AC on, but I get the impression in my case both have to.

The fuse did not feel hot but I left it in. Later I pulled the fuse and it looks perfectly normal, bright with scratches from normal contact wear metal on metal.


I am not sure what happened. I will say occasionally I cycle the AC on and off, usually not right away, usually at least 5 minutes off before I turn it on again. I do this for various reasons. It seems as though the issue may have shown up yesterday after one of these cycles, not sure if there is anything there. Today I just wanted it to prove it could run for the drive continuously. I started AC within 30 seconds of cold engine start and shut it down within two minutes or so of pulling up at home. Tomorrow I will probably do some cycling and I will be checking the fuse every trip with AC use for now and gradually step down the frequency of checks if nothing looks unusual.

Shortly after I corrected by changing the fuse I mentioned, someone I know with an 02 Golf gasoline model had the same exact issue. He changed the fuse I did and has had no more issue since, but noticed the cable to the alternator seemed very hot, though resistance might be high causing the issue. I am not sure the issues would be related...but maybe re-terminate one or both ends of this cable or replace it?

The box and cables on top of the battery are known trouble spots. It certainly wouldn't hurt to replace them with a new setup from fixmyvw.com or (IIRC) IDparts also has it.