What causes compressors to burn up ?

Another Prius compressor burns up due to low refrigerant. if it’s not low refrigerant somebody using the cans and over charged with refrigerant is another good cause but not on this compressor. then there’s the shops that do not own refrigerant analyzers and recovered contaminated refrigerant completely saturated with moisture plus a high percentage of air with other mix refrigerants and then spread it to other cars.

 

Yes very true the wrong oil will cause compressor failures but over a long period of time you do not see it immediately it’s one of those ticking time bomb kind of things.

In this case it’s a GEN one Prius old fashion with a mechanical clutch not electrical. But you would not believe still to this date decades after the compressors have been phased out that use 150 viscosity refrigerant oil there is old shops that have large bottles of this old contaminated absolutely disgusting smelling moisture laden and refrigerant oil that they stick and all cars because it’s what they half and they are cheap and don’t want to replace it. But you would not believe still to this date decades after the compressors have been phased out that use 150 viscosity refrigerant oil there is old shops that have large bottles of this old contaminated absolutely disgusting smelling moisture laden and refrigerant oil that they stick in all cars because it’s what they have and they are cheap and don’t wanna replace it.
That would be the equivalent of engine oil that’s 0W-16 on a brand new Prius and replacing it with high performance racing oil 50 viscosity or 60 viscosity. The engine will start but I’ll guarantee you and bet you pink slips you’re not gonna get no 250,000 miles out that engine LOL .

On this particular compressor failure I’m willing to bet 99 times out of 100 when the compressor gets removed and turned upside down to pour out the oil to measure it for oil balance of the new compressor. There will be zero oil in the compressor or next to unmeasurable. The big question is ! WHERE DID ALL THE OIL GO ???!!!...

 

No warning no check light no automatic shut off.
Many safety systems on air-conditioning are like idiot lights on car Dash for the engine.
Sometimes you’re lucky and you pull over and stop before you blow a head gasket or eat up the rod bearings on the crankshaft and then sometimes you’re not lucky.

There is a warning in sound depending on the mode of operation that was pre programmed. Some vehicles that have a clutch you can hear the clutch snap on and off rapidly when a low pressure cycle in clutch switch disengages this is usually an indication if it’s a hot day that your refrigerant is very low.

On a Prius with a electric compressor if you have a lot of experience listening to the compressor and knowing the difference between a full system and a system short on a few ounces it will be whining at six or 7000 RPMs all the time if it’s starving for refrigerant trying to keep the passengers cool. It does not know it’s burning itself out it was only program to do one thing if it’s not cooling enough spin up faster and move more refrigerant to provide more cooling. Here is a link to a compressor that’s been in about 7000 RPMs and the discharge temperature of the case of the compressor is 350° it’s too stupid to shut itself off that’s the fault of the engineers this is a prototype bus for Janenne tech and Facebook the engineers are located back in turkey this bus has two compressors with problems and I had to tell them what to do to fix all their problems they have.

These buses only go 49 mile range all Electric because the way the engineer set up the electric compressors and the fans on the condensers they devour so much power they literally eat up the electric batteries range to move the vehicle. Prius does the exact same thing if it’s running low on refrigerant charge.

 

other thing that cause compressor burn up
1: if you have two electric fans but only one condenser fan is not working you may not get a engine over heat but you will get high head pressure ( hide side pressure) this will shorten the life of the compressor over time. The a/c will work but you high side PSI will go up and the hotter the day the worse the A/C performance will get.

2: plugged condenser plant material of some sort, animal hair, dust, dirt, mud, ect. aggressive cleaners high alkaline or acidic, shiny bumper or paint sprays (oil or silicon based) coat the condenser fins then attract dust beater then a air filter, road salt.
all will degrade condenser performance raising head PSI raising high side compressor heat reducing compressor life.

On top of that for the Homer Simsons of the world who top off and charge by cans looking at the pressure " what do are they reading ???LOL. Way off the mark, not true PSI reading. The be better off pissing into the wind.

3: plugged or restricted cabin air filter. AGAIN back to the bear can cold Ted Bundy couch potato mechanic. His high and low side reading will not be true. will get cold out the dash but the refrigerant weight of charge will be way off.
"Most of the cars I have to redo for mechanic or body shops or DIY have partly restricted cabin air filters because they are too lazy to check and just want to slam bam blow and go collect the money. Including the dealer.

4: Testing for leaks using shop compressed air. The high moisture saturates the ester oil that dose not get removed by pulling a vacuum. This forms a acid that brakes down the refrigerant oil and attacks thin aluminum. this take a long time, ticking time bomb.

5: mention above before. Wrong oil but this to takes a long time.

6: there is a lot of contaminated refrigerant out there. MOST CHEAP or IGNORANT shops will not have a refrigerant analyzer to test for this. "think of it this way'. ( the shop {person} go into a Brothel (cat house) uses no protection sticks his hose into 4 or 5 dirty holes then with out taking a shower comes home to his wife or girlfriend and repeat). THIS IS THE EXACT SAME THING!. But using a refrigerant machine sucking in contaminated refrigerant then sticking his hose into some other customers car to recharge. This shop is just a big STD spreader of contaminated refrigerant.

7: The mechanic or DYI in the way they test or try to get the compressor running, or to turn on. Too many way to count,

That's defiantly not all, a drop in the bucket but that is good to get you thinking.

Some will say if it blows cold , it was cheap and fast and I collected the money . Then it must be good enough it must be right.

 

Sorry about that but sometimes our industry need some tough love or shock therapy to get the point across. Just think of it as if I just gave you your quadruple black Turkish espresso shot latte this morning and you slammed it all down in one gulp.
I guess my above post wasn’t meant for those who wake up in the morning and Mr. Rogers was the most explicit show we’ve ever watched. Lol