I drive a recently rebuilt 1992 jeep cherokee.. it is running great... however from time to time the air conditioning will make a popping noise.. kind of sounds like a gun shot.. from what i have noticed it only does it if i'm just idling.. and only after a few minutes of idling. One time when it happened i noticed it was smoking under the hood. but i cant figure out for the life of me what is happening, or how to fix it.

Any ideas??

 

Compressor clutch going bad?

 

This ^^ Or you ac is over charge or building up to much pressure and popping the pressure release check valve on the back of the ac compressor. I had no idea that they would do that until a couple of weeks ago when my son over charge my ac on my 98. Just something to check out.

 

very helpful! makes sense! is there a way to check the valve.. or should i just replace it? is it okay to use my AC in the mean time?

 

another quick question... do you think this would cause my engine to run a little bit hotter than usual??

 

I really can't answer that question. I didn't even know that it had one back there until my boy over charged mine. If you didn't just recharge your system I would have it checked out to find out why it's building to much pressure.
How much hotter is it running? If the compressor is really dragging then it may be possible to run warmer. But it is normal for it to run a couple of degs. warmer with the ac running. But not much.

 

Hey Torrez,

I did the same thing as your son due to a faulty gauge on the kit I got (Doh!) and my compressor is doing the same thing. It's kind of scary. How did you go about releasing the extra refrigerant? Is it safe to just let the check valve release it from the compressor? or can I use the gauge hose valve and release some from the low pressure port?

 

When My son did it to mine after a few times of it popping the check valve it stopped on it's own. But I had one of my old fill connectors and just released a little more pressure to be on the safe side.

 

I just carefully let some out of the low pressure port and it's running fine now. Not quite as cold as my car running R12, partly because I let a little too much out, lol. When I get my gauge set and vacuum pump I'll do it the right way.