6 yr old side by side Maytag. Water puddle on floor w/ freezer & fridge not working. Compressor makes loud buzzing sound 8-10 seconds and stops. This repeats about once every 5 minutes. Compressor is very hot to the touch so I thought it may be in thermal overload protection (recirc) mode.
I shut it off and unplugged it for 3 hours to cool off. Cleaned the coils in the fan basket plugged it back in and everything worked great again.
1 month later. same thing happens again. This time I replaced the starter relay and overload relay on the compressor ($37 for parts) on advice from a friend. Fridge eventually worked again after cooling down.
3 weeks later (today) melted freezer/puddled water on floor again. Tried the cool-down method again but this time the compressor just keeps on cycling with the buzzing sound and getting very hot without cooling the fridge or freezer. I can’t afford to lose any more food again. This working OK/ not working again) is very frustrating.
Do you think the compressor is likely going bad?
Fred