vijith555

Hi everyone,

I have a 2010 RX 350 that has developed a problem recently. So to try and make this short the problem is on a hot day say when it is over 35C or 40C the air conditioner starts to cool fine but in exactly 10 minutes (I did time this) starts to blow hot air. So what is happening is the compressor cuts out but the AC light on the infortainment screen under Climate settings says it is on with a green light next to it. So to get the compressor working again all I do is turn off the air conditioner off completely or just go to the climate settings and toggle the AC button off and back on which instantly kicks back the compressor and starts cooling.

This happens on extremely hot days where the car has been sitting in the sun for hours. If the car was garaged and you drive into extreme hot weather the AC would never cut off. Has something to do with the ambient temperature being hot for the compressor to turn off by itself. But it happens in exactly 10 minutes following the start of car which means there must be a system that triggers this automatically because of a fault?

On other days when it is below 35C this never happens even if the car was sitting all day outside too.

Any ideas why this might be happening would be appreciated.

Thank you.

Benken7

Hi vijith555,
The AC in my 2010 RX 350 has exactly the same issue and the mechanic hasn't been able to resolve the issue or find out the cause of the issue.
Were you able to resolve the issue?
Ken

vijith555

Hi Ken no I have not been able to resolve this. It only happens in extreme heat days of the summer and rest days its fine so I have now lived with it for sometime. Do you have any ideas? I think it is a compressor sensor working bad.

Benken7

Initially the mechanic thought that the issue was related to the compressor sensor and he changed it 3 times but the issue persisted. However, he noticed that the fan cuts off before the compressor cuts off and surprisingly, when he made the fan to run nonstop, the compressor did not cut off even as I drove the car on a very hot day. Ultimately, the mechanic said that the issue could be from the radiator and I find it difficult to believe that. Eventually, I will change the radiator and if that fixes the problem, I will let you know.

vijith555

Wow that's some amount of times you changed the switch and good find about the fan cutting off before the compressor cuts off. Makes sense and I had a feeling it could be the fan not cooling the compressor causing issues. Instead of radiator could it be a fan that we could replace or a switch? Unless the fan and radiator are together in this car sorry I am not very good with the components. Thank you for letting me know. Hope it fixes the issue.

Clutchless

It may be the thermo-switch that operates the fan. I have no idea where it is located. Or a separate relay or switch that turns on the fan once the A/C is turned on.