Since we had a rash of warm weather, I just got a chance to check out the AC in my 95 Legacy. It seems that when I have the AC on at the coldest setting, the AC will come on and off and is not constantly on. I never had this problem with any other car, so unless this is a feature on the Legacy, I may have a problem. Can anyone shed some light on this? When the AC kicks in, it is very cool, so I don't think that it is a coolant issue.

 

Thanx,

Peter

first off a/c compressors have a magnetic clutch on them which engages and disengages as needed. it is totally normal for this "cycling" of the a/c clutch, in fact it needs to cycle or the a/c system would freeze up. if your a/c is blowing cold, and there is no visible sign of oil on the refrigerant lines i would say your freon ( not coolant ) is ok. if you can put some gauges on the system it would be real easy to see if your low on reon, which if you are would cause the compressor clutch to engage/disengage more frequently. as far as hearing the clicking type noise of the a/c clutch on subarus the compressor is usually on the top of the motor, and on a lot of other cars it is on the bottom of the motor and it just may be you hear it more on your subaru.

Thanx for the info Legacy. i actually meant to say refridgerant and not coolant.

no problem, is everthimg working ok. i was just giving you a hard time about freon/coolant

Technically freon refers to R-12 AKA dichlorodifluoromethane refrigerant, and this 95 has R134A - tetrafluoroethane, is a Freon alternative/replacement and is not technically Freon.

 

Freon was a trade name by DuPont, the new name is Suva, Can you say hair splitting!!!!!!

This weekend I hooked up a guage to my ac because I really want the car to be cooled. When the compressor is not engaged, I get a reading of undr 20psi. When the compressor is engaged, I get 45psi, which is normal according to the gauges. I didn't add any refrigerant, because I wasn't sure if I needed. The compressor was cycling on and off every 30 seconds or so. The belt had about 1/2 inch of play - is this okay?

 

I'm still looking for answers and hoping it's not a costly one. Any other suggestions?

 

Thanx,

Pete