A/c making noise ** please help **

MIGHTYMOUSE

Ok so today when I started up my car I heard a clicking noise comming from the glove box area. After some troubleshooting I noticed that when I pressed the recirculating button to make the air come from the outside it would stop clicking, only if it was in the outside air position. once I pressed it again to make the air recirculate it started clicking again I messed with it a few times on my way to work but it would make the same noise no matter the temperature. what would make that noise in the glove box?
my warranty just ran out 500 miles ago

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2009 Nissan 370Z 6MT

Fountainhead

Hi MM,

So you say there is a clicking noise heard in the cabin? Go outside raise the hood and see if you hear the noise there? The compressor (motor that pumps the R12 coolant under pressure) should be clicking on and off at regular intervals depending on how cold the ambient temp is - say every minute or so, give or take a minute. If you don't hear the click at the same interval as in the cabin then return to the cabin. Turn your fan speed up and see if the click interval decreases (gets faster) when the fan speed is turned up, could be your fan has something caught in it? Don't know. If the A/C is cooling at least there isn't a coolant leak. Don't know what to make of the click only occurring when the recirculating door is closed. Something could be stuck or hanging from the air control door and getting into the fan motor. Maybe the air door is closer to the blower when it's closed. If you remove your glove box then the air filter is behind the glove box in a little drawer, pull out the drawer and use a flashlight to look down into the blower and see if you see anything in there touching the blower *looks like a hamster wheel on it's side.

Also turn the AC off and leave the system on Auto and see if the click goes away, try to isolate the click to one system, cooling or blowing. Good Luck!

370zGatorman

This happened to mine just last week A really fast ticking sound that's constant, loud and repeats like a stop watch ticking. It will only get worse in the next week or so if you don't get it fixed.

Last year I installed an in-cabin air filter and everything has been fine. Last week I got the loud clicking behind the glove box and took it to the dealer. They advised it was the wrong filter and removed it and I haven't had a problem since. They said it was keeping the air doors back there from opening up correctly. I haven't had one click since they removed the filter.

Now, as far as the filter I used one from that thread here that many others said they used and not the oem filter. My filter didn't have the notches cut in the side and I'm not sure if the OEM one does either. They returned the filter to me and it looked distorted from the filter door tabs pushing into it.

Now, as far as why it happened last week? This is just a guess but I was going down the freeway last week and hit a pothole really hard which made a loud thud noise when it happened. My guess is that it dislodged the filter or something and a bit of it started preventing the air doors from opening correctly. The only other thing I did was have the Fast Intentions exhaust installed last week as well. If anyone has the oem filter does it have notches in the side to accomodate the plastic tabs in the filter door?

MIGHTYMOUSE

Aright so on my my back home tonight I realized the noise is definitely behind the glove box. I did install an in-cabin filter in the car a few months ago. I used the same part number as the maxima because I read somewhere on here thats what we needed to use. I will take the glovebox out tomorrow morning and take a look at the filter to see if it makes the noise after taking the filter out. Thank you guys for taking your time to help me out hopefully its something as simple as the filter hitting. I will also make a video of the noise prior to removing the filter just so the next person to search this issue has something to compare this to.

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2009 Nissan 370Z 6MT

370zGatorman

YW, let us know how it turns out but that should fix it. As far as replacing the filter again I'm in the same boat and trying to find out more about the OEM filter as I don't want this to happen to me again. Hopefully someone with the OEM one can chime in and let us know if it's got slits in the sides and if they've run into any problems.

P.S. I grew up in Jax and still miss it.

kenchan

i think there is a TSB for this...

Fountainhead

I cut the notches into my replacement air filter before I installed it to make sure there were no compressions or distortions in the filter causing it to get out of square. No noises here.

SPOHN

Gut interior, call yourself a man, enjoy much weight savings. Racecar baby.

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