Hi All,

I just bought a 2010 Versa 1.8S HB manual transmission. I am having some problems with the air conditioner.

It looks like the air conditioner works intermittently. When the engine is running, but the car is stopping at neutral, I push the A/C button to turn in on. After some hissing and other noises typical to a compressor starting up, it looks like the compressor disengages after about 30 seconds. Then, it turns on again after 6-7 seconds. From then on, it works intermittently for about 10-11 seconds with 6-7 second intervals. (The A/C light stays on during the whole time.)

I can tell that from the clicking noise I hear every time the compressor engages and disengages, also, can see a little ripple at the rpm. When the hood is open, you can clearly hear the noise every 10+7 seconds.

The effect is more pronounced when I'm driving. At constant speed, every time the the compressor engages, I can hear a very clear start-up noise from the passenger side. And this happens a few times per minute. Very annoying.

Apart from this, there is a load humming noise when driving with the A/C on. Same problem/noise is present when the A/C light is off but the fan is switched to defrost.

Any ideas on this? Has anybody experienced similar problems? It is hot outside but I'm scared to turn on the A/C for the fear that it will wear out.

I'm going to take it to service next week.

Thanks,

Memrek

First, welcome to the site.

The A/C running on and off is normal. Some have a little noise when the compressor engages, some have a little more than a little noise. It's all underf warranty if it doesn't blow cold air anymore, but until then enjoy the A/C. The ripple in the RPM you see is the compressor engaging and loading the system, and again is normal.

The defrost setting will run the compressor and A/C system also.

Check this out... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwgY137s1vk

Hello,

thanks for the reply. I was told by the service that the A/C turning on and off is indeed normal. I also wanted to check another new versa to see if it did the same thing, which they let me do at the dealer. It also sis the clicking. Although, I did not get to drive it and don't know if the humming is also present when the A/C is on.

I guess I will learn to live with it, but it is disappointing. I know this is an economy car but I don't understand why they would program the A/C turn turn on and off intermittently. It is easy to get used to noise that is constant, but when there is intermittent noise, it is especially annoying.

Thanks again for the reply. As for the video, I am aware that putting the fan into defrost turns the A/C on. I did my homework and read the manual right after I got the car. ))

Memrek

Found this old thread about A/C problems. I've got a 2011 1.8SL and the A/C smells like sour farts when you turn it on. Goes away after a while, but not fast enough. We've got a whopping 2k miles on the car so far. Should I care? Is this abnormal? Is there a filter I need to change or a cleaning process I should use? TIA.

I have had nothing but problems with the AC compressor in my 2010 Versa for the last year. The AC unit makes a grinding noise when I turn it on. I took it back to the dealer last year and they replaced the compressor. But..the next day it was doing the same thing. I took it back to the dealership and they denied hearing anything wrong. I took it yet to another dealership and they said didn't hear anything either (after having it all day) So frustrated, I happened to speak to a sales person before I left and he admitted there were problems like mine with the Versas and Cubes but still had no resolution. Since then I have video taped the problem and you can clearly hear what's going on. Either they didn't replace the compressor or replaced it with a defective one. The sound is loud enough it attracts attention of other people. Obviously something is wrong since every other car I've owned hasn't done this. This grinding and clunking noise that happens when I turn the AC unit on is NOT NORMAL. The car also idles rougher with the AC on as well. I'm taking the car in today to yet another dealership with the hopes something will be done about this, since the first dealership supposedly replaced the compressor acknowledging there was a problem in the first place. Very frustrating to buy a brand new car and still be dealing with the problem, taking time off work as well as repeated returns to see if a different dealership will help. Anyone can relate when they're making payments on a brand new car that needs repeated trips back for service.

I know this thread is 5+ years old, but I saw it was still a bit unanswered, so I'll put in my two cents. I have a 2015 Rogue, bought it brand new two years ago, and have been having this A/C problem since I got it. I figured it can't be an issue with the refrigerant charge because I am getting cold air at times (the dealer service rep confirmed this), but it is very irritating when it is 100 degrees outside and I am getting what feels like close to 80 degree air blowing in my face. The Nissan service rep told me that the issue is that my car is in ECO mode, which causes the compressor to run significantly less than normal to save energy. They had it for about an hour and that's all they could come up with. They said they'd need it for a longer period of time to do more testing. His suggestion was to turn off ECO mode and that should help. So I did that, and it helped a bit, but it's still blowing out warm air at times. That can't be normal, even with the "new smart technology" that the guy said is being used in cars these days. My guess is a compressor problem, which I told him is what I thought it was. It better be covered by the warranty.

I for many years have worked on Fords and Nissan is fairly new to me but they are all cars in my view in the basic way they work.

One thing I found quickly while chasing all the myriad problems a/c and cooling systems bring is that it can be whopping difficult to tell what the issues actually are. You have to infer so much of it. On the Ford I found it very valuable to tie in some LEDs that showed when low and high fans were on and also, not just an a/c switch but one that clearly shows whenever the clutch has engaged to supposedly be on. With all of those it became much easier to determine those hard to find out things like PCM software strategies in various environments.

Things like the fans not coming on for months at a time in winter and them being on almost 100% of the time in summer and normal. Or, like a/c that gets shut off at any great throttle moves as a safety issue to free up horsepower. The a/c goes off at any throttle greater than like half, and the cooling drop during that few seconds and if paying attention you will catch that. Normal and intended. And on older cars the idle bumps that can almost stall car then are easily seen as the power surge needed to turn fans on. A/c too. You could easily watch the performance of the a/c system itself as well, and know ahead of time when you were looking at a recharge.

I too would expect any 'eco' mode as shutting the a/c off more of the time. If it has ever been opened up or refilled, if any water got into the system the water will freeze across your restriction there and then the cooling stops, car goes on a few minutes with warm a/c then the ice plug melts and then back to cooling until water freezes there again. Don't know the clutch type on front of compressor but if the magnetic type like so many use then wear can open up a critical airgap there and then the clutch begins to not engage sometimes as the gap has gotten too big and not enough magnetism over that distance to pull the clutch faceplate over to lock. The fix there is often to simply reshim the clutch to closer and then it often goes back to working fine. A weak clutch coil can do the same thing.

Compressors pretty much either cool or they don't, there is no in between, it either works good or it's torn up. Unless of course it is one of the late ones that has variable output, I haven't played with one of those yet but simply by description of how they work alone it should be able to cool then not cool erratically. Cooling/not cooling is often an overhead (control system) issue.

I will likely be putting some of those indicators on my Nissans as well, they proved to be dead cheap and quite valuable. So many people have utter fits trying to figure out the a/c and cooling systems which are almost the same now, they are so hardwired into each other. Those lights really help, at least they did me. I do all of my car work and no shop ever touches my cars and for 45+ years now.