The first day it got really hot around here, i had the a/c running. i noticed that at idle the air wasn't cold, but when driving it was fine. The A/C compressor makes a slight groaning sound when in use, which I was told is normal by a dealership. Anyway, my prob is that yesterday it was 107 and when I went to use my a/c during the hot part of the day, it would click on for about 5 seconds and then click off. If i left it on, it would blow hot air, and occassionally the compressor would click on for 5-10 seconds and then shut off again. Later in the day when it cooled down to the 90's I went to try the a/c again and it was fine. So it seems when it is really hot, the a/c doesn't want to work, when it cools down, it seems ok. I think it might need to be recharged, it's not very cold when it does work. Is it a possibility, that maybe a loss in freon is causing the system not to run? I've also noticed that my ambient air temp sensor seems to be incorrect and on the hot side lately. Could there be a correlation? Thanks

Eric

 

Some cars have a thermal cutoff that disables the a/c clutch if a high engine temperature condition is detected. My audi had this problem twice and it required replacing the a/c thermal sending unit each time. on the audi the sending unit is separate from the temp gauge sending unit. unlike your situation, this problem was notintermittent on my audi.

 

so does anyone know if a 2000 maxima has a thermal cutoff switch for the a/c sys?

 

I had the same problem a few weeks ago; recharging the compressor took care of the problem for me. The compressor has a cutoff switch which kicks in if it senses that the refrigerant level is low. In my case, the refrigerant was almost empty, according to the shop I took it to. They put in a dye when they recharged it so I can take it back and have them check for leaks (which I still need to do).

 

Thanks marc2k. Thats what i was figuring was going on.