I have central air and after the air has been on awhile, the condenser fan stops running.
The outside unit is still on because it makes a bit of a racket, just no longer the fan. I don't know what is causing the noise, maybe vibrating, because as soon as I'm aware the fan isn't running, I shut it off. If I turn it back on 10 minutes later, it works fine again. It's been doing this off and on for about a week.

Any ideas?

Thanks,

Jim

Sounds like the outside fan is going out on the internal overload due to a high curent draw or lack of air flow. You might try giving the outside coil a good cleaning to see if that improves the air movement.

You may have a defective capacitor for the fan motor, try replacing this if it still gives you a problem you probably have a bad motor.

Can you check to see if you still have voltage going to the condenser fan motor when it stops running? If you do have voltage it means that it is something wrong with the motor, if you don't have voltage it means that you have a problem with the contactor.

If you have voltage and the motor seems to be unusually hot I would recommend a good oiling if you have oil holes, so many of the newer motors do not have places to oil.

Sounds like the outside fan is going out on the internal overload due to a high curent draw or lack of air flow. You might try giving the outside coil a good cleaning to see if that improves the air movement.
I usually rely on how the outside of the coils look to decide if I should clean them or not.
Perhaps this isn't the best way to go. I will make sure those coils are good and clean.

Thanks for your response,

Jim

Can you check to see if you still have voltage going to the condenser fan motor when it stops running? If you do have voltage it means that it is something wrong with the motor, if you don't have voltage it means that you have a problem with the contactor.

If you have voltage and the motor seems to be unusually hot I would recommend a good oiling if you have oil holes, so many of the newer motors do not have places to oil.
I will check for voltage the next time this happens. I will also research to find out if my motor can be oiled or not. Is there an easy way to see if it can be oiled?

You may have a defective capacitor for the fan motor, try replacing this if it still gives you a problem you probably have a bad motor.
5 years ago, the capacitor was changed. Since it was only two years old then, testing the capacitor sure seems like a wise idea. I will take your advice.

Thanks,

Jim

Is there a brand of oil at a home center that I can use to oil the motor?

3 IN 1 motor oil.

To see if this motor can be oiled or not you need to look for two oil holes on the side of the motor, one at the top and one at the bottom. You can tell them because they will have a little plug in each hole. Now this does not mean they are directly on the end of the motor. You may have two plugs also on each end of the motor but these are drain holes and the only one of them that you remove is the one facing down after the motor is installed. Remember the oil holes are on the side of the motor. If you motor is black in the middle section and has a bright section on either end these holes will be in the bright section and they will be in line with each other.