Seasons greetings all!

Just got in the car this morning, and there was a horrible metallic whirring coming from under the bonnet, sounding sort of like the metal on metal noise you get when your brake pads wear out completely (not that I have ever let any car of mine get in that state you understand ) and it varies with engine speed.

Popped the bonnet, and found the noise is coming from the aircon compressor. Got back in the car and tried to switch the aircon on - nothing doing.

Soooooo, anybody got any ideas whether it is:

a) compressor clutch goosed
b) just needs regassing? (wishful thinking, although I've had it 2 years and never had it regassed)
c) something else?

BTW, MY00 if that should make any difference

Cheers,

Matt

 

sounds like compressor clutch..

I have an older one but don;t think they fit.

remove the drive belt from it and worry about it in the spring would be my advice..

 

That's what I was thinking. Hey ho.

 

Bit of an update as it may be useful info for someone

The aircon wasn't working because it only had about 200 gm of gas in it instead of the full 700 (ish). That got it working again but the noise stayed the same.

Finally got the belt off. The compressor spins over by hand perfectly quitely and smoothly. But, the idler pulley for the aircon belt sounds like a bag of spanners. My money's on this. Phoned my dealer who took the VIN cos they have to then source it from Cool Air, and asked him to get a price. Still waiting on that. But in the meantime, noticed that the pulley just seems to have a standard internal bearing, held in by a circlip. I'm going to whip that out tomorrow, and go find a bearing suppliers and see what I can get.

Hopefully my mullered aircon isn't as mullered as first thought

 

Sorted! Removed the bearing from the idelr pulley and sourced a new one from a bearing/engineering supplier. It's a standard heavy duty ball bearing out of the SKF catalogue - costs a fiver.

Refitted the bearing into the pulley and got a new belt (4PK925 type, £3 + VAT from the local motor factor), refitted everything, and bingo! No metallic grinding noise, and aircon works fine. Result!