01 Yukon XL a/c noise

rzh · July 15, 2006

The a/c in this thing started making a weird vibrating or chattering noise a while back during a road trip @ 1600miles.

Took it to the dealer but they could not duplicate it. Then on our way out of the shop it started again with a/c on.

It only does this with a/c running and in drive. I changed the a/c compressor pulley tensioner with no change, it still does it.

Any suggestions?

thanks,

rzh

TNBurban · July 17, 2006

I'm having the same problem with a 2003 Suburban with 43,000 miles. It only chatters with the AC on. However, mine will do it in neutral when I rev the engine past 3,000 RPMs or so. Take it to a mechanic and and raise the hood, crank the AC and rev the engine, see what happens.

I've got a guy working on it right now, dropped it off this morning. I'll let you know if he manages to fix it and how he fixes it. His first thoughts was one of the belt tensioners, as when he was under the car as I was reving it he could see it shake pretty good when it made the chattering noise. He mentioned that there may be a spring in there that is broken.

mnl119 · July 17, 2006

Your compressor is porbably starting to fail. I just had this happen on my '03 Yukon and that was the problem (it was grinding with the A/C on).

There is a TSB about "Catastrophic Compressor Failure" (TSB #01-01-39-003A issued Jul '03) on these models so it looks like it may be a design issue. I would get it looked at pronto because if it starts kicking particulates up into the evaporator and then the condensor you could be looking at replacing those units too.

ken1mod · July 17, 2006

I definitely agree that you have a compressor problem. I fixed this once by adding a compressor oil charge. It's cheap and low risk, you might try it.

Ken