S40 air conditioning sounds suddenly louder

2012kate · Post by **2012kate** » 03 Jul 2012, 19:14

Hi all,

I have a 2002 S40. Today I was idling and noticed that the air conditioner suddenly sounded louder. I turned it off with the fan still on auto and the temp set at 72 and it seemed to to get quieter so am thinking it's the compressor. The air system was completely repaired in 2006. I am hoping there's a maintenance fix for this. Does anyone know about the air system and what the new sound might indicate?

thanks much, Kathleen

Post by **jimmy57** » 03 Jul 2012, 19:43

If the system decides it needs recirculated air from inside instead of fresh air from outside to reach cooling goals it will automatically select recirc.
Turn it on and set fan manually to almost highest speed and then depress the recirc button (pictogram with an arrow circling inside the car) and see if that noise increase is what you heard.

2012kate · Post by **2012kate** » 04 Jul 2012, 08:58

I'll give that a try Jimmy. Thank you! Kate

Post by **Fish stick88** » 04 Jul 2012, 09:52

Should that not work, a video of the sounds would help, Videos are awesome on this site. Hope that works for you though!

Post by **jimmy57** » 04 Jul 2012, 12:52

Another thing I didn't mention: S40/V40 models used a function where recirc is automatically selected when you stop when temps are above mid 80's. A/C warms up when engine speed goes down to idle, switching to recirc offsets this so they put the auto recirc feature in.
The car has a cabin filter and if it is getting stopped up the fan will be louder.