The AC on my 2006 Forester with 130,000 miles seems to come and go. The AC blows nice and cold and then suddenly it stops cooling. If I turn the AC off for a short time and turn it back on, the AC usually starts blowing cold again.

 

I think I hear a rattling noise coming from the magnetic clutch. Since it still blows nice and cold when it's working, I'm guessing that the magnetic clutch might be the problem. Is there anyway to check the magnetic clutch? Any suggestions on a replacement magnetic clutch, Subaru or aftermarket? I approached an indy repair shop about the repair. At first the owner of the repair shop wasn't behind the idea of replacing just the magnetic clutch. Then he said if the AC system was still fully charged, he would replace just the magnetic clutch, but no guarantees. He said that the AC compressor had to be pulled to replace the magnetic clutch and quoted me around $500 for parts (non-Subaru brand clutch) and labor. Does that sound about right ? As always, any help that I can get from this board is greatly appreciated. I'm a fairly competent shade tree mechanic, could i do this job myself? 

Edited June 29, 201312 yr by The Dude

I would suggest reading through the following: http://www.subaruforester.org/vbulletin/f88/c-compressor-clutch-95352/  and yes, there are four pages.  It seems  the clutch on the a/c wears
and when the gap exceeds spec it will fail to engage.  The solution is to pull the clutch and remove shims.   I did this two years ago and solved the problem (fingers crossed).  Oh, I did a recap of my experience on post #39.

Sorry the link doesn't seem to work, let's try it one more time:

http://www.subaruforester.org/vbulletin/f88/c-compressor-clutch-95352/

 

If it doesn't work, go to the search page of subaruforester.org and enter 95352