Central AC Unit Intermittently Makes Noise And Stops Cooling

by Jeff
(Pittsburgh, PA)

I have a Goodman model # SSZ140181AC central AC unit which was installed a little more than a year ago. The unit worked fine up until about 2 months ago when it, occasionally stops blowing cold air and makes a lot of noise (like the compressor is trying to turn on). This happens with no apparent pattern (happens on hot days and cold days....when it's been on for a long time and when we just turned it on).

The noise is the same noise it makes when the unit turns on and then starts working (when working, the noise lasts for a couple of seconds and then the unit gets very quiet and runs fine), but when it's not working, the noise lasts until we turn it off. When the unit is not working, the outside AC unit (not in the room, but outside the house) exhausts cold air (as opposed to hot air when it is working).

Sometimes power cycling the unit fixes it, but other times it does not.

We had a AC repair person come take a look and he suggested adding a starter assist motor for $375, but given that this is a fairly new unit, I didn't want to spend the extra money before seeing if something else might be wrong. Especially since the parts for the unit are still under warranty from Goodman.