Help! - I'm new here, and I thank you all in advance for any advic...

HOMEOWNER CRIES FOR HELP...

posted: September 8th, 2008 - 2:04pm

QUESTION:
I'm new here, and I thank you all in advance for any advice you can give. Right now times are hard everywhere, and learning to fix things is a must to make ends meet.
Well, last night here in LA the heat got to us and we decided to turn on our AC. We haven't turned it on in months so once we turned it on, everything worked fine. Except, there was a noise we never heard of before emanating from the Large Air intake in the hallway. I immediately went to check the motor outside of the house to see if it was making that noise too, but it wasn't. The noise only came from the air intake inside the house. It's hard to explain it, but its like a high pitch noise sort of like when something needs oil. I went ahead and removed grill and removed the filter and I could feel all the air being pulled into the huge duct. I still heard the noise, but can't figure out where it may be coming from. Could it be that dust might be clogging something? Should I go into the attic and check for something? Oh, I forgot to mention that I turned off the AC and I thought, maybe if I turn it back on the noise will go away. Well, the unit didn't turn back on at all. So I decided to let it rest for maybe 10 minutes and then I turned it back on and it worked. The noise was still there, but this time I didn't turn it off and left it on all night long till it reached the right temp. This morning the AC was automatically off I guess since I placed it on AUTO.

ANSWER: A plugged up filter will make some pretty awful noises some times but because you already checked that you are probably looking for a return leak check the blower for foreign matter or grinding noises if the blower is going bad you will need a new one but hope for a loose connection at the unit look for loose tape or ductwork.