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[Firkit]

Hi all,

I've suddenly developed a rather noisy air-con compressor. The air-con works fine and is ice-cold so that's all good, but there is a heck of a racket coming from the area of the pulley on the front of the compressor - worse when the air-con is turned off and the pulley is idling with the compressor not engaged. My local garage tells me that this is the bearing on the pulley itself and that the car is fine to drive until I can get it sorted. Does that ring true with the experts here?

Also, is it possible to change to pulley/bearing without swapping out the entire compressor? I've heard that swapping the compressor out is a pig of a job and I could live without an earth-shattering bill at the minute.

[feeutfo]

sorry, but have seen quotes for 400 sobs for pump, cheaper from breaker tho. Worth dropping the belt off and spinning all the wheels by hand to see or feel whats up, but it sounds like your mech has just done that. The pulley on the pump will stop spinning if gas is low, it saves the pump from damage. Poss it may be low on gas and about to cut out, but with the noise as well, i would tend to agree with your mech, but i aint no expert. They are a bit quiet tonight, must be down the pub.

[VXL V6]

It is possible to swap the bearing out in situ which means that you don't have to evacute the refridgerant.

However, most aircon specialists won't take on the job and insist on fitting a brand new unit so they can warranty the work.

[Derek_in_Penzance]

It sounds as if a clutch spring is broken. The noise could be the friction disc part of the clutch rubbing on the pulley. The leaf springs are supposed to hold the friction disc away from the pulley except when the compressor itself is running, when the solenoid part of the clutch is energised, holding the friction disc against the pulley.

The clutch can be changed but you need a special puller(s) to do it; check out air con specialist suppliers on the 'net. I don't know how easy it is to do this with the compressor in situ on an Omega, as I'm a  bit of a newbie to the cars, but I have experience with the Senator/Carlton compressor which is very similar. On my Omega 3.0 Elite the compressor looks very difficult to extract complete and I don't know how easy it is to get at the clutch from inside the engine bay.

[Big_Roger]

Hi,
If it is as your mech says, the idler pulley bearing, then it is absolute NoNo to use, certainly not for long.
Air con compressor idler pulley bearing noise is bad news. Inside the pulley sits the electro magnet for the clutch. The clearance between the coil assembly and the pulley are very small.

The noise is from the bearing usually having become dry. It is a double row ball bearing and the extra friction will cause it to heat up, and when it wears enough it will wobble and the magnet shroud will start rubbing on the clutch coil. This will mean defo replacement compressor. My guess is that if it has got to the stage that the noise is as noticable as you say, it is just about coming up to this stage.

On some cars the clutch can be removed in situ, and the pulley removed and the bearing replaced, but I wouldn't have thought the Omega is one of them, as the two pipes coming up form the compressor turn up just in front of the pulley, and if you have to remove these and lose the gas, then I would have thought that although awkward to remove, it would be easier to take the compressor off to repair. As already said, most air con repairers will not touch this job, because at their repair rates, it costs more to do than cost of an after market replacement unit (Not vX), ie about £250
I have seen them on net for about this.
Generally, you do need some special pullers, but I have found that as long as you have a bit of ingenuity, and small set of pullers and good circlip pliers, inside and outside, you can usually get a clutch and pulley off and back. The special tools make it easier and more foolproof, but some jobs, like changing a compressor front seal, cannot be done without.

The bearings are usually quite oddball dimensions. You will need to go to a bearing supplier, and generally hope he will order it for you. Usually about £20

Untill you can decide what you are going to do, I would get hold of the auxilliary drive belt for the version of your car that is not fitted with air con and fit that. £20 odd unless you can get s/h, I expect there are some forum members that can even give you the part number, but, if the A C idler pulley seizes up, and something like the tensioner pulley breaks, or the water pump shaft gets bent, or the flying belt smashes the engine side cooling fan housing, which then punctures the rad matrix, then you are really talking money and time. I have seen it all happen on a Renault I had.

HTH

Roger

[feeutfo]

That sounds like a plan, will remember the non ac  belt trick if i get agro with myn, 2 minute job too. Nice one.

[albitz]

also worth asking people in the for sale section who are breaking cars about buying a pump.

[Firkit]

An update on this:

All fixed now. Got a brand new compressor for £240 thanks to a link I found on here, fitted for £150 plus a re-gas. All horrible noises are now gone, V6 purr is all that's left to hear.