Walter Cohen wrote:
Hello.
I had my Bryant central a/c condenser unit replaced 9 years ago along
with the inside coils. My condenser unit just failed this weekend (I
just turned off the whole system). Actually I knew something was up a
few weeks ago as the inside blower would go on but the condenser would
'try' to start 60 seconds later (it used to start exactly the same
time the blower did). Eventually, after about 4 or 5 minutes
('tries') the condenser would kick in and all would be relatively ok.
Now all that happens is the inside blower goes on and I hear a 'click'
from the outside condenser unit every 60 seconds. This continues
forever and nothing else happens - other than slowly raising the
indoor temperature of recycled hot air.

It could be that your condenser fan motor bearings are binding (due to
age, wear, or lack of lubrication), or maybe the motor has a bad winding
that shorts out when it gets hot. Your condenser fan motor's run
capacitor could be bad. In any of those cases when the motor get hot
it seizes and shuts down on an overtemp condition. Subsequently the
compressor will stop running due to the opening of a high pressure limit
switch. If you see this happening, shut off the A/C as soon as you
notice it. This scenario isn't good for compressor life. It sounds
like you've
already figured this out!

You might also have an intermittent contactor (the relay that turns on
the
power to the compressor / fan), or it could even be something as simple
as a corroded or loose wire. Then there are any number of more esoteric
things that could be wrong.

Call a tech - find out exactly what's wrong, then decide if you want to
fix or
replace.