Quote:
Originally Posted by jyl
If bad capacitor, motor wouldn’t start up at all, correct?
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It's a split capacitor which has a side for the compressor and for the fan that moves air across the coil. The fan side can go bad while the compressor side still works. I've been on a lot of service calls due to a bad capacitor where the fan side failed. If you're sure the outdoor fan is working, the system is most likely very low on refrigerant. When it's low on refrigerant, the compressor will come on, run until the low pressure switch kicks it out, turns off until the system balances out and then restarts. But it has to be REALLY low on refrigerant for this to happen. Typically you'll notice the suction line at the evaporator, and sometimes at the compressor, freezing up and once it's finally so low it just cycles off of the LPS.