Nissan Maxima 2000
I was driving on the highway with the AC on when I reached a diversion and reduced the speed before I speed again. I noticed that the AC stopped cooling, like when you keep the fan but switch off the compressor. After few minutes, it started cooling again. And when I reached the town it stopped cooling.
Talking to couple of my friends, we found a wire behind the radiator damaged (I was told it connects the compressor to the main AC switch). My friend fixed it somehow and asked me to go do it properly in a garage. The AC worked almost very well and I didn’t have the time to go to a garage.
That was all around 3 months ago.
Last week the AC became bad and on Tuesday it stopped cooling. I went to a garage and asked him to fix this wire. I saw it badly damaged and the copper inside (or whatever metal) was exposed in several areas. He cut the middle part of it and put a new wire and tapped it at both ends. The AC cooled immediately.
I drove to a nearby place with the AC good. But when I left, the AC did not cool. Later in the evening it wasn’t cooling also. Next morning it cooled. I was going to another town and the AC remained cooling till I reached a diversion. The same thing happened of 3 months ago except that it didn’t cool again after speeding. I went to a garage in that town and was told the compressor has gone bad. The garage man shot water on the condenser and the AC started cooling.
After that I found out that sometimes this trick works fine, sometimes it improves the cooling a little bit and some other times it has no effect. But whenever I touch the condenser it doesn’t feel hot. I also found out that sometimes when I accelerate fast raising the RPM to 3, 4 or 5000, the AC cools well. But not every time.
I have doubt about a few things:
1. Why does the AC cool when washing the condenser if it’s not hot in the first place?
2. Does shooting the water hit another thing which makes the AC cool? Because shooting the water penetrates to the radiator (which I didn’t find washing it effective) and to the engine (which I don’t think effective too). But maybe there is something else.
3. Has not fixing that wire properly for 3 months probably damage the compressor?