Strange noise from air con, but not always there...

[cooljimy84]

So I've noticed a few times that my air con makes a noise every so often, like a dry bearing rumble/screech. But if i turn it off and back on again it goes away for a while.
Sometimes it doesn't happen at all, sometimes it happens straight away, i turn it off and back on and it never comes back.
All the time it is blowing nice cold air.

I've checked my low side pressure when running and it seems a bit high.. 45 PSI. I've checked a few other cars at my office and they all seem to be 20-35 PSI.

Is it worth dropping some gas out of mine to see if that helps ?!?

[lukemk5gti]

Any chance there's say a piece of broken vent plastic or something after falling in.. When you take a corner a certain way the plastic might sit so that air passing by causes it to rattle. Turn it off, it sits back down and doesn't make noise... Just a thought!

From memory though I think mine does make a barely noticeable plastic knocking noise when I turn it on the first time but that wears off in a minute. Figured it was just the blades starting up.

[cooljimy84]

Not that i can see. I'll triple check at lunch, but it does it when standing still.

It's kinda like the sound you get on an old car with power steering, when you hold it at full lock.
Sound like this one,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAaDu5vzeaA
Comments say either re-gas or new unit needed, but as mine doesn't do it all the time, i'm thinking it might just be over gassed....

[cooljimy84]

So looking at it again, i let some gas out and it seems to be less frequent (we are down to 45 PSI)
But after looking over the car (self service) i found that in the hub of the air con wheel a lot of brown dust with a some worrying shiny bit (i'm assuming metal shavings)

I'm gonna check the pressure again and see if i can get the part number off as i know the old 1K0 820 859 F used to fail...