Have to replace my AC compressor.

Car-Part.com--Used Auto Parts Market

 

Did you keep up on the cleaning of the condenser? A clogged condenser will kill the compressor although 217K is a good run.

 

Wrecking yards is one source as in the above first post response.

Possibly this company
Ranshu Inc. - Everything Automotive A/C Parts and Accessories

217,000 miles it’s still in its adolescence going through puberty should last another hundred+ or 200,000 it’s a Toyota it all depends on the maintenance and upkeep. Not wait for things to break.

 

The seals and bearings if well lubricated could last for years. The brushes will possibly wear out; refrigerant doesn't unless it leaks out or is contaminated by detritus from wear.

 

Brushes?

 

Not sure if it is brushless. There is, however, one "Achille's Heel" with the AC compressor. It's the connector pins that corrode. When this happens, the entire electrical compressor is useless.

Contrary to what some advocates say about dielectric grease, I fill both the AC compressor and water pump connectors with it. It keeps water vapor out of the connection. Pressure of the contact between the connectors displace the grease and make good contact, even though the grease is non conductive.

 

no brushes for about a half a century now.

external motors like bench grinder‘s old handrails old polishing Motors. only could have brushes on external motors that are connected through a shaft through a external lip seal that drives a internal sealed semi hermetic pump.

If you tried using brushes inside a refrigerant compressor the hot plasma arc would make a lot of acid and phosphine gas. Rapidly break down the oil and destroy the compressor.

Basically the only thing that destroys these compressors is a low refrigerant charge that equals low oil return that equals low cooling back to the electrical windings and motor.

This is why old refrigerator motors that used all 100% pure copper lines and use silver brazing rod to make all the connections and if they did not have a leak would last 40 years. If you didn’t lose refrigerant you did not overheat the compressor because it always had a nice return flow of cool refrigerant.

This is why my horizontal freezer the one that the lid opens upwards was manufactured back in 1962 with R22 inside of it and it still working perfectly to this day filled with frozen food @ -19°F

 

But doesn't the compressor suffer at least some mechanical wear? I'd think it's pump pressure would decline at least some over time, no?

 

Very very vary little over tens of thousands of running hours. Where it really makes a difference on where lack of oil return due to a low refrigerant charge excessive heat due to a low refrigerant charge.

Anybody who is followed my post may notice that for some strange reason everything comes back to lack of refrigerant charge. hhmmmmmmm I wonder why that is ???... of course we have to exclude failing safety controls failing blower fans or failing condenser fans plugged condensers plug cabin filters or plugged evaporators with dog hair external sources like that that have nothing to do with the compressor itself but will cause failures.

 

Sans an overheating reason (clogged/dirty condenser or low refrigerant (Freon leak)), your AC compressor should last a very long time.
My’07 at 340 kMI still blows as cold as day one. I do have a screen door screen between my intake grill and my condenser to keep the bugs out.


iPhone ?

 

Sometimes, intermittent AC operation is due to the inverter cooling system not functioning properly. Before you go spending a bunch of $$ trying to swap parts in the AC system, you may want to be certain the problem isn't being caused due to the inverter getting hot.

 

... due to a failed inverter cooling pump.

 

I guess I’m lucky living in the San Francisco Bay area we don’t have problems with bugs clogging condensers I have driven through states that have that problem so I do know it exists.
We also live in a very mild climate where 70°F is considered hot. Only when traveling north or east or south does it start to get hot and only in the summer.
As for inverters overheating and causing the air-conditioning not to run in all my years living in our mild climate here in San Francisco I still have not come across one case of the AC not working because of an inverter over heating. I have read a lot of posts with wild guess a lot of inverters have been changed trying to get the AC running ouch $$$$.
I think I’ve seen once inverter Has those three big fuses off the main harness line located under the cover one of the three fuse was blown. Just wondering how many times an inverter was replaced due to the internal replaceable fuse. Maybe most of the time then burger never had to be replaced in the first place . But then you have to ask yourself what caused The fuse to blow. A lot of parts get thrown out a symptom in attempt to cure the problem just because no correct diagnosis was ever performed in the first place

 

It's pretty simple really. I've done 6 (six) inverter cooling water pump replacements where the owner was also complaining about the AC only working 'sometimes'. Two of them had already had "repairs" performed on the AC system that did nothing except empty their wallet. The other 4 just lived with it. All 6 are now working normally after installation of a new ICWP.

Often, we hear about the catastrophic failure of an ICWP while someone was driving down the highway at 70mph. The car suddenly shuts off, due to the ICWP blowing the AM2 fuse. I think the majority of ICWPs don't experience rapid failure. I believe they go through months of intermittent failure before finally stopping. Although some of those pumps were obviously smoked, with melted goo at the bottom, there were also a couple that appeared to be working (car in IG-ON at owners home) if all you did was glance in the reservoir. There were ripples, but very light. Who knows if it would be running or not 10 minutes later. Very big difference with a new pump installed. I'd be willing to bet there's a lot of Gen2s running around right now that have bad ICWPs in them and the owner may never know. It depends on the climate and what types of trips the car is used for.

Once the inverter temperature starts getting abnormally high, it apparently stops sending power to the AC compressor. Makes sense to me, since the AC compressor can be a significant load. At what temperature does this occur? I don't have that exact answer, but it apparently happens prior to the P0A93 cooling system performance DTC triggers.

Maybe that's an experiment I can try when the weather gets hotter. I have a 340k mile 2006 I recently purchased with plans to make it a work vehicle. Perfect car for this experiment. Unplug the ICWP, have an assistant drive the car while I monitor inverter temp and AC compressor current load and see at what temp the compressor current drops out. Sounds easy enough. I'll add it to my list!!

 

yes because the water pump, but usually not the inverter. so many shops replace the inverter easy big money just to find out after it was only the water pump. But the shop dose not tell the customer the mistake, ( bad diagnosis "AKA guessing") they just replace the cheaper part and say nothing. Sometimes the shop have the Balls to makeup a story that the inverter blown out electrical caused the pump to go out and charge the customer more money to replace that to.

This is why I tell people to only go to a shop that specializes in your car. Hopefully even if they can't read a book ( big problem in this trade ) if that shop has been in business for many years they broke and miss-diagnosis so many parts they finely got better by the time they get to your car. ( this is the sad truth!!!) Be careful going to shops that the owner of the shop has never ever worked on a car in his life and can not even diagnosis his self out of a wet paper bag. " there are exceptions to this rule. but few".

 

I did the the same. I also made sure to lubricate the plug on the side of the trans that rots out to the sync pulse plug. has the PG & FG from the trans for phase timing. Its in a bad spot Exposed to the the ground. if that plug rots it cannot be replaced. new trans. Seen a few here about that.

 

It will throw a code if its fails. Pull all the hybrid codes it may not be the compressor. It may be what TMR says. Also concerningther pum read this thread:

 

It may be like TMR says. It may also be a failing hybrid battery that will kill the ac too. You should have lights on your dash Diagnostic codes launched alerting you to a malfunction.

Get those codes pulled using a hybrid capable OBD device instead of just shot gunning what you think it may. Btw most auto parts stores cannot pull hybrid codes. Post those codes back here before you proceed.

Also to TMR's point see this thread here:

Inverter pump/coolant flow question | Page 2 | PriusChat

 

Replaced one compressor last year. 4 bolts. Its really easiest AC compressor of any car. Most shops would not even do it since it is hybrid. Reminds me of the early 1900s when some people refused to work on gasoline cars and worked only on steam. Make sure you remove the orange battery plug just in case. And then remove the ac plug.
On ebay there are some remanufactured ones for around $230. If you want to do new oem you can buy it for under $700 i think. Also used from ebay or yard is an option and its the cheapest alternative. I did that and then went to ac recharge place and brought my own ac compressor oil for hybrids (napa for $20) and they cleaned and filled it up.