Coolant leak from pressure relief valve on A/C Compressor?

I tried starting my 03' tdi wagon the other day and all of a sudden there were blasts of coolant and air coming from what I believe to be the A/c Compressor. The compressor was making a weird nose as well. The coolant hose coming from the area seemed to be quite hot but the engine was not warmed up yet. Temperatures here have been quite cold so I don't know why the A/C would be running. I have pulled the radiator cooling fan control unit as my fans were going on without the key in the ignition. There was an obvious bad (burned, fried) smell to the circuit board and I have ordered a replacement. Any help or input is greatly appreciated.

Unplug your clutch connector on the AC compressor until you get this sorted.

You will probably have to replace at least that pop off valve. Sometimes they re-seat without leaking, but not all that often.

You need to check out your ambient temperature switch, and your HP AC sensor as well. If they were working correctly, this would probably not have happened when the weather is below about 35 F.

But you should never disable the fans without disabling the AC compressor.

Thanks for the beta. When you say unplug the clutch connector are you talking about the wiring harness connector secured with clips as seen on bottom of 87-38 in the Bently? Could the faulty coolant fan control module alone have been responsible for the event? Again, much appreciated information, this is why I love this forum.

Cheers.

Have the same issue with my car, anyone?

There are only two wires in one connector going to the AC compressor, unplug that connector. It is on the end of the compressor opposite the belt.

It is very hard to tell what caused the compressor to turn on with this limited information.

Here is a link to a thread with lots of info about the Mk IV AC system. It will take some homework and checking to figure out what went wrong. Otherwise you might be throwing parts at it.

Mk IV manual AC system

No more freon after cooling fan died

My issue may be similar in that my cooling fan quit an undetermined amount of time before I noticed that the ac was not working. Found the fan and replaced but still no cooling. Had it recharged and it only lasted a week. Seems like the high side was too high with no cooling fan so it may have popped the relief valve.

That's the high pressure relief valve. It can leak yes but the usual cause for seeing what you are is that the cooling fans are not working to cool down the ac condenser and the head pressure from the ac is building so much that it has to be relieved. The green is from the dye in the system someone has added. If you are using your defrost then your ac gets cycled even with the heat on. However it's only sparingly.

I would say the first guys tdi is leaking but the second guys fan issue has lost a lot of his r134a from bleeding off.