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New AC Compressor whining

Ares

Veteran CEG'er
Joined
Nov 24, 2004
Messages
645
Location
in the garage
Went ahead and put in new compressor, drier, and filter. AC blowing nice and cold, everything worked great until just now. Noticed a whine coming from compressor when AC turned off and Clutch continues to turn slowly. When AC is on noise goes away and clutch spins normally.

I figured a new compressor would have the correct clutch gap. Not sure if this new clutch is defective or if I should add a spacer to the clutch and see what happens. Anyone experience this? What should I do next? V6, svt...
 
They usually do but the initial wear-in can alter it to be too close if it was set to the close side. Recheck it.

.015"-.030" needed there. I've seen an improper clutch bearing pressfit let the outer housing migrate forward to alter the gap to close it up too.
 
man there is little to no gap at all. I can't even get a .012 in there. I figure I'll just replace it. I'm just worried that the whining I heard might be metal grinding causing shavings traveling through the system.

Not sure if I should just change compressor or am I completely screwed and needing to change everything else too, drier, orifice tube filter, condenser as well?

Major pain considering I just replaced everything except condenser. Got the Four Seasons brand from rockauto. Pretty sure I'll go with different brand this time.
 
'Clutch continues to turn slowly.'

I'm not your master but do as I said, reset the airgap. It might save you so much and potentially far more trouble. You are most definitely headed into the wrong short circuited thinking, but yours and do what you will. EVERY time you break open a system you risk more damage.

The noise is the clutch barely scraping. Compressor is likely fine if getting cold and kinda (really actually) dumb to do all that over when all you need do is yank one little 8 mm. head bolt and reshim. If clutch is engaged and no whine then it's NOT compressor. Listen close between on and off and compare. On quiet and off whine is clutch not compressor. Or yank serp belt and then spin clutch, bearing in it could be bad. That could point you right back at your desired compressor change.

You really need to reshim wider at least once to see what your issue is. It may be all you have to do. The shims are expensive but I've used washers from a hardware store at 30 cents each to do that before. Are you going to pass up a 30 cent fix???????????????????

Again, yours and do what you will and what they commonly do. I watched many thousands of dollars go out the window when I was in parts with people misthinking the order of things to cause themselves huge amounts of money for nothing. Like the compressor thing. 95% of all compressor changes are for NOTHING, I have never had to change one ever on an endless stream of cars. At the part store most of those were un-needed too. People have no idea that the a/c mechs commonly want you to do that for mostly no reason other than it makes them LOTS more money. Think Obamacare.

I have fixed a/c countless times on my stuff and using less than $25 per time usually. To go for years more with no trouble until something breaks again. Almost always NOT the compressor.

A tip.....................the drier stays useable if you plug it securely as soon as it is disconnected, leaving it open for 24 hours to the open air ruins it (and even then I PERSONALLY use them again to no trouble at all). You just gotta know what you are doing there.

Now, if you failed to replace the oil in the compressor and drier (each requires separate amounts) when you did your work, then compressor might be wearing at the internal end clearance limiter there and thus affecting the clutch clearance again. Up to you to decide that.
 
Hmmm, I actually have the spacers from old compressor so wouldn't even cost that. Got the bearing and clutch too for that matter. But yes will reset the gap first and go from there. Compressor was shipped with oil in it. Think I'm good there. And it took more than a while of use before any whine occurred. If oil were an issue, I'd suspect noise and seize up right away. Thanks
 
We have success. I removed the compressor clutch. Not that easy to break that screw while keeping the clutch from turning. But I got it out and added a second washer/spacer I had from the the old compressor. Even though the gap initially seemed a bit more than I thought it should be, I figured I'd at least try it and see what happens. Tested it out with ac on and off several times and clutch is operating as it should. No whines or rubbing with ac off so far. The gap did appear to adjust a bit closer after checking it again. Not sure why that would be but so far so good. Hopefully it stays that way, right around .030 as it is now. AC still nice and cold. Thanks amc for the input! Peace!
 
There you go..............................if after a while the gap decreases again, suspect the bearing of moving inside the clutch pulley shell, or a/c compressor internal wear at the end limits. The first is more likely.
 
FYI, save those old clutch parts. I have refaced both sides of the clutch 'flats' with a dead flat fine tooth file by hand before and you can even mismatch parts off different cars if you do that, they simply re-break-in to the new part running against. Another way to get years more life often without spending a cent.
 
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