thermostat with 6 color wires?

Question

I have a carrier cooling system. I need help there are 6 color wires.
1. red
2.blue
3.brown
4.white
5.yellow
6.green
now here is the issue I have, the thermostat is also from Carrier and it works fine to turn on the furnce but not the compressor outside.. Right now there are only four wires connected.
1.red
2.white
3.yellow
4.green
no matter what I do right now the compressor would not turn on.. but when I turn the control switch off and on( from fuse box) the compressor moves a little..so at this point I know the thermostat is not controlling the compressor at all.. what should I do? does the blue and brown wires make any differences at all?

Answer 1

To run the air conditioner, the thermostat only needs red, yellow and green.
The red wire is hot power (27volts ac).
The yellow wire is the call for cooling.
The green wire is the fan.
The white is your heat.

To test the thermostat, take a piece of wire and jump the red, green, and yellow wires. If the outdoor unit comes on, the thermostat is defective and can be replaced with an inexpensive unit from a home store. Get a programmable type. You can install this yourself if you have basic wiring knowledge. Just remember to turn off the breaker for the furnace while you work on the thermostat.

If the outdoor unit does not come on, check the fuses or breakers for the power to the outdoor unit. If they have tripped, only reset them once. Do not open the panel on the outdoor unit. It carries deadly high voltage, and without training or knowlege, you can bet burned or a life-threatening shock. If the fuses/breakers open again, call in the pro.

Answer 2

Here is a website with an explanation of the color codes.
http://toad.net/~jsmeenen/wiring.html

Since you have the yellow connected you may have a faulty thermostat. Though you mentioned that the unit started briefly. It may be a bad contactor or the compressor capacitor is bad.

I would troubleshoot the condenser unit first. Try jumping the contactor with 24V and see if the unit fires up.