Is my AC about to have problems?

Recently I started noticing my car randomly puffing out something that looks like ashes or flakes from the AC vents. And now I'm noticing a whine from the AC that goes up and down with RPMs and stops if I turn off the compressor. My car only has 10,000 miles. Are these normal, or a sign of problems to come?

mine had that before it went out

Ashes sure doesn't sound good. I know nothing about AC and wonder if mine is bad right now. It went bad last summer and there was a funny smell in the car.. I took it in and they said there was a leak in a line. They replaced the line and recharged it. The smell came back but it's cold outside so hard to tell if AC is working. The other thing I notice is if I go through a car wash now, the windows fog up real bad with the AC on, never did that before.

jbailer said:

Ashes sure doesn't sound good. I know nothing about AC and wonder if mine is bad right now. It went bad last summer and there was a funny smell in the car.. I took it in and they said there was a leak in a line. They replaced the line and recharged it. The smell came back but it's cold outside so hard to tell if AC is working. The other thing I notice is if I go through a car wash now, the windows fog up real bad with the AC on, never did that before.

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its like snowflakes and it disappears,well melts when it touches something so it disappeared real quick

Crap, I just noticed some of these sympoms too... i think my compressor is also shot. When I turn the A/C on I get that whine that changes with RPM and the air coming out isn't cold (and smells) and when it rains with the A/C on there is always moisture on the windows.

notstok5.0 said:

Crap, I just noticed some of these sympoms too... i think my compressor is also shot. When I turn the A/C on I get that whine that changes with RPM and the air coming out isn't cold (and smells) and when it rains with the A/C on there is always moisture on the windows.

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moldy smell? i had a moldy smell before it went out, cabin filter change didnt do much

Jon|3.7 said:

moldy smell? i had a moldy smell before it went out, cabin filter change didnt do much

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Yes, but I'm also getting a whine from my compressor. If I had to guess it could be the compressor is telling me I'm out of freon, unless it's the compressor that is shot. I'm at 35xxx miles too.

I should also mention that my AC is still blowing cold.

7six2 said:

I should also mention that my AC is still blowing cold.

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my problem was a moldy/mildew smell, then the snowflakes, then driver side a/c went out and just blows air, not hot air, while passenger side was still cold, whine, now passenger side is the same. its still a A TINY BIT cold but barely. 31,677 miles.

notstok5.0 said:

Yes, but I'm also getting a whine from my compressor. If I had to guess it could be the compressor is telling me I'm out of freon, unless it's the compressor that is shot. I'm at 35xxx miles too.

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go before 36k :O unless you have extended warranty

Yup...AC quit on me this weekend; while I was wearing a suit, on my way to an out of town funeral. And its been hot here the last few days. I'm disappointed that this is happening after only 10,000 miles (and my car is a garage queen), but all is cool as long as the dealer gets me fixed up without any hiccups.

Just heard from the service department. He said that its the evaporator...and that he is trying to get one rushed over so I can get my car back. Thinking that I would rather see them take the time to a good job on my car and not mess anything up, I mentioned to him that I'm not in a big rush to get it back since its primarily a garage queen. NOW I'm reading these horror stories about how the entire dash has to be pulled out...and parts being on backorder from the factory, with some folks waiting a month to get their cars back. Now I'm worried.