Is my AC compressor going out..., ...or do I just need recharge the AC? Options

[conus00]

I was driving on very hot day with the AC on and out of sudden the AC stopped blowing cold air. My g/f said that she smelled something.
Shortly afterward my AC fuse blew. I just replaced it and tried to turn the AC on and blew it again. I noticed some unusual sound coming from the bay so I (temporarily) replaced it with 20A and had my g/f to turn the AC on while looking at the compressor. The belt is moving but when she turns it on the top of the pulley starts making slow jerking moves and does not spin freely (looks like it is locking up).

I know that on her 91 Suburban that is the indication that you have lost all the freon (or whatever they use to fill AC nowadays). Is it the same on Celica and do I just need to recharge my AC or is my compressor just going out?

This post has been edited by conus00: Jun 25, 2010 - 10:11 AM

[solidxsnake]

I was driving on very hot day with the AC on and out of sudden the AC stopped blowing cold air. My g/f said that she smelled something.
Shortly afterward my AC fuse blew. I just replaced it and tried to turn the AC on and blew it again. I noticed some unusual sound coming from the bay so I (temporarily) replaced it with 20A and had my g/f to turn the AC on while looking at the compressor. The belt is moving but when she turns it on the top of the pulley starts making slow jerking moves and does not spin freely (looks like it is locking up).

I know that on her 91 Suburban that is the indication that you have lost all the freon (or whatever they use to fill AC nowadays). Is it the same on Celica and do I just need to recharge my AC or is my compressor just going out?

I couldn't tell you to be honest, but it couldn't hurt to try to refill the loop. At least, I think it couldn't hurt. It's about $20 a can of coolant around here, so it's relatively cheap and it could be a start.

It makes sense for that to be an indication of all of the coolant being gone, as the compressor may need to be primed to work. Can't say for sure, I'm not too familiar with phase-change systems, just throwing some ideas out there. The fact that you say that's the indication for the coolant being gone on her Suburban makes me believe it's probably the same for your car, mainly because A/C systems vary little between cars, it's just a simple single-stage phase-change system.

This post has been edited by solidxsnake: Jun 25, 2010 - 10:42 AM