Air Conditioning - Compressor doesn't run

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Rouge
06-10-08, 09:30 AM
Help. I'm having a problem an A/C unit. The inside and outside fans are working. The compressor tries to start for about 1 second then turns off. It repeats this cycle about every 20 seconds. Could this be a capacitor or is the compressor bad?

pflor
06-10-08, 04:43 PM
Maybe the compressor is not bad. Yes, it is possible that the capacitor may be defective, test it with a multimeter. If the capacitor is o.k., you need to test the compressor for shorts...that would be bad news.
Saturn
06-10-08, 06:40 PM
If it is not kicking the breaker you have a good chance of just having a bad capacitor or possibly in need of a hard start kit. The capacitors are cheap I would probably just put a new one on and see what it does. I have had some capacitors that checked good with the meter but still would not run the compressor so I always just trade it for a known good one even if it checks good with my meter, just to be sure.

Rouge
06-11-08, 01:14 PM
I pulled the electrical cover and was about to remove the capacitor. That's when I saw the wire leading to the capacitor had corroded and finally burned through. Replaced it and now it it is running normally.
Rouge
06-11-08, 01:18 PM
I pulled the electrical cover and was about to remove the capacitor. That's when I saw the wire leading to the capacitor had corroded and finally burned through. Replaced it and now it it is running normally.