Said It Here

AC compressor making weird sounds after servicing

Using coil spray and water to clean an outdoor unit can leave the compressor making strange buzzing sounds, particularly when temperatures climb above 85 degrees. This leaves homeowners anxious and unsure whether the post-maintenance noise is something they should actually worry about.

Overview
People affected3 accounts across 2 forums
Workarounds found6 items attempted
Community agreement10 total upvotes

What people tried

Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.

Found another way around this?

Share your steps and trade-offs so fellow engineers don't have to reinvent the wheel. No account required.

  1. 1
    Turning off the unit
    Did this help you?
  2. 2
    Calling an HVAC technician
    Did this help you?
  3. 3
    Checking if the condenser coil is dirty
    Did this help you?
  4. 4
    Comparing the sound to other units heard in the neighborhood
    Did this help you?
  5. 5
    checking system pressures
    Did this help you?
  6. 6
    pinpointing the location of bearing failure
    Did this help you?
Tried another approach not listed above?+ Share your workaround ↑

In their words

Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.

r/hvacadvice2 people · September 2026

“Someone help! I serviced my AC unit and now the compressor is making weird sounds.”source ↗

“Yes I removed the power before servicing. I used coil spray and water.”source ↗

plencoolilikeplen · r/hvacadvice · 7 upvotes

“noticed the new compressor starts making a buzzing sound, but only when outdoor temps are above ~85f. This is driving my OCD crazy.”source ↗

“is this something I should be worried about?”source ↗

ljbrandt500 · r/hvacadvice · 1 upvotes
r/MechanicAdvice1 person · October 2026

“yes there’s a clutch. it’s hard to tell in the video but the compressor was getting stuck for like 1/4 of a second repeatedly”source ↗

SandalDeSeagull · r/MechanicAdvice · 1 upvotes

“yeah low side was sitting around 50 psi and high side around 180 i only put in one can so 340 grams”source ↗

SandalDeSeagull · r/MechanicAdvice · 1 upvotes

Where this came up

People with this problem also raised