Hello,

First post here and it is basic. My wife has a 91 RS+ that has had some issues in the past and with my really basic and limited knowledge or automobiles I was able to resolve them or at least point my mechanic friends in the right direction.

However I am stuck and have a pretty embarrassing question. I do not know what the name of the part in the attached picture is....

In addition, this part is doing some weird stuff. The triangular object on the front of the part will stop spinning when idling and then begin spinning a split second later, then stop again a few seconds later. It is also making a click sound each time.

I have been a browser of this forum for years and if anybody can point me in the right direction it would be this community

 

a/c compressor. It does that.

 

Thank you, never noticed it doing that....

 

Follow up on this. Can this malfunction in away to attribute to overheating?

 

Shouldn't unless some other part of the cooling system is not working correctly. When it's running (spinning) it puts extra load on the engine which would make it hotter but the fan should come on if that happens and that should handle it. But, if it's not working very well and/or you're in Death Valley.....