So, suddenley here in S.E. Michigan, it went from comfortable motoring with all of the glass open to sweaty-back, sticky-leatherette, must have the A.C. on motoring.

As soon as I turned on the A.C. for the first time in Samantha's 15k mile life, I noticed a distinct and fairly loud whine that changed pitch with the engine rev's. I thought i was imagining things so I turned the A.C. off and it went away. It has been 2 days since i first noticed it and i have found that it doesn't always make the noise. I am suspecting that it could be as serious a problem as a bad pump or as minor as a bad belt.

Anyone else have this problem?
Thanks in advance for all of your feeback!

--Neall

 

Hard to diagnose without hearing it. It might be normal as the freon rushes thru the evaporator. Leave it run for awhile. Does it cool OK?

Here is a tip. It is important to run the AC at least every few months. You need to circulate the oil in the compressor to keep the seals from drying out... Will save you big $$$ over the long run.

 

I had the same thing happen to me. I heard the whine, but continued to drive it, only putting the air on when absolutely necessary and in short spurts. I noticed it was intermittent for me too.
Then I was in the car with my spouse who is an air conditioning junkie. The air was running full blast for some time on a 90 degree plus day, all of a sudden the air was luke cold and the engine temp guage shot up and steam started coming off the hood. Pulled over, opened the hood and the radiator overflow cap exploded off spilling coolant all over the engine.
I had it towed to the dealer. What happend was the power steering fan siezed, popping the fuse. Unfortunately the power steering fan and the regular fan is on the same curcuit. All was covered under warranty

My advise..take it in to make sure the fuse is not causing you any problems. You do not want to get stuck like I did.

 

I've read that the PS fan and radiator fan are on their own circuits/fuses now. I don't know when that change was made.

 

My air in my 03 Cooper is pretty loud, almost sounds like a supercharger or something... I think its just a combination of the compressor, blower, cooling fan and ps pump. I am used to it and have yet to have a problem and this will be my 3rd summer with it, and as far as I know it has always sounded like that.

 

I hear it too, and didn't really notice it until after 20,000 miles. I figured it's just the engine system working harder with the AC on. I hear it more now that I like to have my radio off to listen to the intake/exhaust!

Richard

 

The a/c will tend to make a buzz or whine that changes with engine speed when working hard. This is normal for MINIs. Trying to keep the car cool in standing traffic during 90+ degree weather is when you will notice it most. It will subside as the car interior cools off and you are driving at a pretty steady rate. A quick check to make sure things are working as they should is to open the hood while the engine is running and the a/c is on. The fan should be running. If not, check fuse F5 in the underhood fuse box. If it is blown, the power steering fan most likely has seized, taking this fuse (5 amp rating) out and with it, the control signal to the larger radiator fan.

When the engine is hot from driving and the a/c is on, the radiator fan will sometimes switch into a higher-speed mode. This makes an unmistakeable steady whine heard outside. This is normal as well.

 

I have the "supercharged" sound also when the ac is on.

I'm going in to the dealership this week for MANY MANY repairs/maintenance issues, i'll bring this up just in case since i'm already there :P I like the sounds of it, cause i want an S... but i dont want it to mean somethings dying/dead.

 

So YOU'RE the CR/W I see all over AA. I know what you mean about the heat, brutal. I haven't actually noticed anything on mine but I also have tended to have the stereo up and windows down, just sorta cruisin lately. I'll give it a try on my way home from work today and see if I hear anything.

 

My '03 MCS has the same almost grinding whine when the A/C is working hard on hot days. It does, in fact, settle down after awhile. Turning off the recirc. and lowering the fan speed down a click or two helps quiet it down too.

I've asked other MCS owners and most all have noticed the same noise.


You know, it's not a flaw, it's a feature.

 

Wow, all of this is very helpful. I appreciate all of your responses. I am now pretty sure that i have nothing to fear, but being the worry-wort that I am about the first auto that i have actually bought myself, I am still going to have Motorcity Mini look at it (if I can ever get through to their service dept.) just on the off-chance that my noise is different from all of yours.

Thanks again for all of the quick responses!

 

I'm guessing you have an older MINI.... The Power Steerling fan has had it's own circuit since 2003.

 

Well, i had the AC cranked a few minutes ago on my way to lunch and I didnt notice anything. There is a slight whistle whenever i stop but that seems to be air moving through the system. Once i get back on it and the blower motor picks up again it goes away.

 

My MINI will whistle while the AC is on at highway speeds.

I found if you turn the recirculating air on or off (sorry I can't remember which) the noise goes away.

See if that fixes your problem, too.

Happy Motoring.

 

I had the same whine sound when I would run the a/c in my 2003 mini cooper.. I took it to the dealer to see if they could replicate the sound and when they did, this is the solution to the problem they decided to do.
What my Service Advisor told me was that the a/c compressor needed to be swapped out, it had seized up. Whether or not this will solve the problem we will know on tuesday when the part is installed. However my service advisor gave me an 05 mini cooper (non-s) as a loaner (Props to concord mini) It has a cvt 6 speed and auto climate control. I ran the ac all the way home (50 miles) in manual mode and I did not notice the whine at all.
Also when I would run the ac in mine I would notice a bog down in power.

 

Wow,you had a seized compressor and was able to turn the ac off or continue driving it with the ac on without shreading the belt. Sounds fishy to me. Many service advisors.... no I won't go there... If it seized You would'nt be driving along thinking thats an interesting humming buzzy drone. It would be a loud screech followed by silence & multiple dash lights & limp home mode or lots of noise as the belt whips about.

 

The bad compressor is why my car is at mini of concord now awaiting a new compressor.

 

I too posted about this issue. I took my MINI from GI, NE to Baron in Kansas City. The tech rode with me and told me I had a bad compressor. A huge whine that got worse with the revs. Good news-easily fixed, bad news compressors are on back order. He said they had to replace a lot of them last year, but only a couple this year.

So, get yours checked out-probably the same problem.

For now at least mine is still working :smile:

 

wass.. how long did it take to get your compressor and how long ago was this?

 

So you guys are saying this could be a bad compressor or it's normal but one of you had a bad one?

I thought I was loosing a bearing on the SC until I read this post. I turn of the AC and the sound went away. I really hear it from 3-4.5k rpm.

 

Strange isn't? Wonder how come I haven't heard of there being a service bulletin for it.

 

I haven't gotten the new compressor installed as they are on backorder. My A/C is still whining and working -although it is a little disconcerting to say the least. I was told the compressors might be available late September but they don't know for sure. Anyway, the service tech sure seemed to know about the problem as he diagnosed it on a two minute drive along-kind of hard to miss that whining over the radio!

 

Anyone know if the whine on the 2005 MC is the same whine that us with older 2002-2003 are hearing???

 

My 05 doesn't whine or at least I can't hear it over the SC. Mine is very noticeable if I rev up to 4500 rpm and then shift gears. When the engine speed drops to around 3500 then it sounds like a bad bearing. No whine to it at all. It's only from about 3200 to 5500 rpm that it happens. I'll see if my camera will pick up on the sound and post it in the next couple days.

 

Must be something about back east.. My mini advisor called me today to tell me that my car will be ready today!. I am going to go for a ride with the a/c on and if it is still present, back it goes to the dealership. I dropped my car off saturday and they had it in two days