[BlakPassat]

Hey everyone, whats going on?

I have a 02 b5.5 passat 2.8l ATQ v6 5 spd. I currently have 53,xxx miles on her.
I had a problem last year where i noticed a whine occurring from the motor. I thought it was low on p/s fluid, so i picked up some at work. I topped it off and the sound persisted. I took it to get looked at and they said the clutch for the a/c comp. was toast. The mechanic got a used one from a passat with 60k on it, and installed it.This was done by my dads friends garage, not a vw dealership, and was done last September, and it was fine up until about 2 months ago. The so- called supercharger whine started to re occur and is very annoying and embarrassing. The a/c doesn't work at all now. I turn the fan on and press the a/c button and nothing happens. I work at a VW dealership so getting it fixed is not a problem.

I really don't understand why im having so many problems with a/c compressors:banghead:

Does anyone else have problems with their a/c comp. on the v6's?

Thanks steve:driving:

 

[yrwei52]

Although Passat may have many other problems but I believe the AC compressor is not one of them. Are you using the AC all the time while you are driving? If you have Climatronic and do you leave it in “AUTO” mode all the time instead of using the “ECON” mode? These will cause the AC compressor running all the time which may shorten its service years. Still many people use the AC this way and not many of them complain the compressor and its clutch failed prematurely.

 

[BlakPassat]

Sorry I forgot to mention, its manual controls.
The funny thing is, i used the a/c probably 3 times since it was replaced last year.

 

[PZ]

Did you drive through deep water (more than 6"). That is one of the more common reasons for V6 a/c clutch failure. It also causes the a/c belt tensioners to fail on the 1.8T.

You bought a used part and it failed. That is the risk you take with used parts, no matter what the mileage they claim to have, it may still fail.

 

[Dr No]

May of did the job wrong. Definitely need to put the system under vacuum for a while to remove all the air and moisture. Otherwise premature failure.