I have a 2004 Outback (4 cyl) w/ 5,800 miles on it.

The compressor motor (I'm guessing) seems to be constantly cycling on/off.

What ever it is that is cycling on/off, drains power from the engine, I noticed

my lights will dim as it is cycling. At first I thought the cycling was only happening while running the air conditioner or the interior air setting or with

the air set to a defrost setting, but the other day I had everything off and whatever it is would still be cycling on/off about every 13 seconds when at a stopped condition, and I can watch my tach revs lower while its cycling.

When standing outside the car you can really hear the (motor/compressor)

cycling on and off.

Does anyone else have this situation?

Is this normal for the heating cooling system in the Outbacks?

Could this be a faulty compressor switch?

 

Also while standing outside the car listening to the compressor cycling on and off, I noticed a rotten egg smell coming from the exhaust, is this normal?

 

Thanks for anyones input!

There's a good chance the the freon is low and the low pressure switch is telling the compressor to kick on and compress. A mechanic can put a die in the system to find a leak. The rotten egg smell is usually related to the catalytic converter, but I think this can be normal.

I have a 2004 Outback (4 cyl) w/ 5,800 miles on it.QUOTE]

 

Nuff said, can you spell WARRANTY ... take it the dealer and make them fix it. If they give you any flak of dumb "We don't see (know) anything wrong." Repeat the words "Zone Rep" until SOA responds.

 

BTW, the catallytic converter should NOT have a strong or consistant rotten eggs smell, that is sulfer dioxide, and it's presence indicates something is wrong.

I agree about the rotten eggs smell, definitely not normal.

 

As for the compressor cycling, this may be a stupid question but are you sure it’s the compressor? It may be the cooling fan pulling some air through the radiator. Our fan (03 Outback) cycles on and off at roughly the same interval. It dims the lights and makes the tach jump a little. We have a friend who has a 02 Outback and it does the same thing. Fan seems to cycle on and off all the time when at a standstill, even in cold weather, although the interval is increased. Newer cars seem to run on that fine line of “perfect” temperature. This was just a thought but the two things may not be related.

 

My advice would be to pop the hood and take a look at the fan when you hear the noise.

Like I said I "think" this is normal. Not sure. The reason I say this is because I have been behind a lot of toyotas and a few saturns that do this. I would like the know the definite answer. Have you ever been riding with someone in the car i.e. a female, and you get that smell from the car in front of you, and you hope that she doesn't think it's you, but she has no clue that what the smell is. Well you know what I mean ;<).

The rotten egg smell is usually from excess sulfer in the gas. Try a different brand.