Do-It-Yourself Story

Unplug the fridge and slide it out from the wall. Remove the lower back cover. CLEAN EVERYTHING. We used compressed air, a vacuum, and a damp rag. The compressor was really hot because the unit was still limping along, so I set up a vortex fan to cool everything down. I removed the support wire, gently wiggled the capacitor off, then removed the relay. EASY! The overload relay was the problem. It rattled. I took it apart and found the insulator inside was shattered. It's hard to believe it was working at all. I plugged in the new one, and replaced the run capacitor at the same time (I could've returned the capacitor but chose to install it while I had everything apart, because the power overload had to arch to work and may have damaged it). The temp dropped immediately. The freezer started making ice about 3 hours later when the freezer settled at 0° - 5°. I could've gotten the parts locally but the wait time was 3 days longer and the cost was $40 higher. PS: I used standard shipping. My parts arrived in less than 24 hours.