So my A/C has cut out a few times last week and the A/C guys seem clueless since eventually I can get it to come back alive.

I was thinking a bad capacitor or mechanical lock-up, but they are saying it's in great condition, yada yada yada; they acutally dont want to replace **** and charge me.

so anway, I was putting my digital thermostat back in place last night (long story) and i blew out a fuse to my 24v source. Tracing the wires in the unit I found the automotive fuse and went outside and stole one from our Prelude and all was well. But I noticed this relay has some burn marks on one of the contacts.

I'm guessing the blue and white wires trip the switches on each side and maybe the one is shorting out. I'm having trouble finding any good schematics, but I was almost wondering if that was the source of my intermittent a/c failure.

see attached pic, ignore my comments, there's 120v at both the blue and white wires.

 

Look at your start/run capacitor and see if it is bowed out at the top (like it is trying to explode). If so, spend $15 on a new one...

 

+1

 

my heat pump is on my roof (condo), it was installed in 2002 and a/c guy I had come out said it checked out fine and looked good.

I didn't really look at the capacitor one inside the unit, pictured above, but I'll check it out.