[Luelf21]

Hi all and thanks in advance to any help that is offered! I have a Maytag side by side. It started making a loud buzzing noise which would last about 10 seconds and stop. It occurred every 90 minutes or so (when the compressor kicked on). After a few weeks of doing this, it started occurring every few minutes. Then this morning we woke up and everything in the freezer was thawed and/or melted. I pulled the fridge out and diagnosed it to the starting relay. I verified there was no continuity to ground on all three compressor prongs (no short was found). I then performed a resistance test between the three prongs on the compressor. The bottom two were 10 Ohms, the bottom left and top was 6 ohms and the top and bottom right were 4 ohms. So everything checked out there. I tried shaking the relay because I've heard they rattle if bad. There was no rattle but i was still betting on it being the issue as they can still fail and not rattle.

I went to an appliance store this morning and purchased a new start up relay/capacitor unit and installed it. It immediately fixed the problem upon start-up. Now, about 8 hours later, it is making the buzzing sound again. It did it 3 times in a 10 minute span and the compressor finally started and is cooling again.

My questions is, what could be the issue? Is it the compressor going bad? It still works once it finally kicks on. Could I have received a faulty part?

Please help me!

 

[jmon]

It's possible it could be the compressor as you stated.

Please post model number. Thanks.

How old is it, and has it ever been cleaned and serviced?

Unplug it and give it a good cleaning with air and vacuum if you haven't already done that, see if that helps.

Post a u tube video sound clip of the noise it's making so the techs can give you better advice. Thanks.

 

[carmusic]

my heat pump compressor was doing that once in a while, few months later it was completely locked and dead