How do you check if your AC Compressor is working?

How to tell if an AC compressor is working. Welcome to Mercie J Auto Care, where compassion and craftsmanship come together. I'm Rick Smith, master certified technician. So first of all, I’m going to cover two things on this. Question one is how do you know if it’s engaging and secondly, how do you know if it’s working? So in most cars, this is an AC compressor and you have a pulley that’s run by a belt. Now what happens is you have a magnetic clutch and when this clutch applies the center part of this compressor turns. So if the center part of this compressor is turning while your engine is running and your AC is on, you look down there with a flashlight. Then you know that you’re getting electricity to the compressor and it’s engaging. Now that’s a start, because we have a 2006 range rover right now that the compressor is engaging but it’s not working properly. The only way you can tell if it’s working properly as you look at the pressures. On this particular car the low side pressure is too high and the high side pressure is too low. Meaning the compressor can’t suck the refrigerant or pressurize it. So I hope that answers your question. Take a peek with a flashlight and that tells you if it’s engaging, other than that you have to have some equipment to know if it’s actually functioning. Thank you for all of your questions. Until next time, safe travels and blessings to you.

[DDowling]

Adding a comment and a thumbs up, car guy but not super familiar with AC systems. Was seeing super high low side and super low high side with no AC. Your video taught me what I wanted to confirm, replaced compressor and components and AC is mint now. Thank you!!

[trubblekleff]

What i do is is, put 2 fingers over the holes and soin the pulley and clutch..if it dont suction your fingers, thrn it wont pump good..i founf that trick out by just playing with it..im new to all of this..im in my diy mode lol

[xtremeskier]

Wouldnt the pressures be as you described (high on the low side and low on the high side) if there was clog in the system? If so, how do you know it's the compressor and not the condenser/evaporator that is clogged?

[quranicviewofislam]

Hi, i used a recharge kit for my ac system. When i plug the hose to low side port and with AC off it was reading in the green zone but as soon as i turned on the ac . The pressure on low side turned on low. Even after multiple trials of adding R134A, the pressure on the low side stays low. I notice my compressor is engaging fine. And fans are working fine too. What u think is the problem? Ac is blowing hot air

[PR-tnpf]

So one qwestion i had was how do i tell if the compreser is working wen i turned on my ac that wheel did not spin i was about to order a new co.preser but i found a gadge put it on i had very low pressure as soon as i started to put r134 in that lil wheel in middel started to spin so i guess i answer my own qwestion

[lonechicken]

What tools would be required to test the pressures of the compressor?

[nevinkuser]

So what is the solution for that type of situation? Can you repair or just replace it?

[supernova]

My car compressor won't spin unless it has freon(R134A)..When I added Freon, then it started to turn. Is this right ? Ford E-250

[Marlo]

What a terrible video video you stopped when you had the solution right there