a/c compressor noise, when off,,why?

ive got an 1997 3.3 6 cyl, dodge gran caravan,, a lemon i might say,,nothing but trouble all the way after the 30 days i bouight it,.

anyhow ,,the a/c is making a terrible noise when off,but when on it quiets down why? :banghead:



:2cents: and not use it till my insurance kicks in? i cant afford the 500.00 its going to take can i do that? get smaller belt to go around by pass a/c unit?

please help,, :biggrin: :mad:

my a/c is doing a hard noise,,
but when i turn on air, which takes awhile to kick in,,it stops noise why?
ive read some posts here and it seems like my clutch/ bearings are not right,is this so?

and when i told my mechanic he said nonsense its all net b/s,that i need a whole new , a/c compressor is this right?

please give me advice,,for as i said i do not count with the 500.00dlls to fix,.

dad in trouble,,with 5 kids,.

The problem is likely to be your A/C compressor clutch, which is tricky to replace. Your friendly neighborhood mechanic would much rather sell you a whole new compressor, and then charge you to evacuate and re-charge your A/C system.

I mean, why do a $150 or $200 repair when you can do a $750 repair?

Seriously, if you are short on cash, just run the A/C all the time. It won't do any harm. You can still adjust the temperature for heat or whatever you need.

You'll take a small hit on fuel economy and performance , but if you are that worried about the repair cost, it's a small price to pay.

Good luck! Carl

I agree, it sounds like a classis A/C clutch going out. I don't know about the Caravans, but the clutch on my SHO costs $45, and take 1/2 hour to replace. Loosen the belt, remove the nut in the center, and the whole thing pulls off. Older models had three bolts.

To make things even better, sometime you can just "shim" the clutchs and they work fine again. I was able to do this when mine started squeeling when coming on. The contact surfaces wear down, enlarging the gap between them. Upon remove the clutch, there are two washer shims of two different thicknesses. You remove the thinner one and see if it work fine. If not, remove the thicker one, or even both. You might get lucky like that, so be sure to check out the clutch yourself. Even if you don't have tools, a cheap socket and driver are way cheaper than what they charge just to pull your car into their repair bays.

P.S. I like the "net b/s" comment. You can tell immediately when a garage owner or employee doesn't know what they are talking about when you reference net resources. Makes you wonder if they've ever owned a computer. They act like there are no ASE certified technicians online, and think no shadetree mechanic should be within ten feet of a set of tools.

I'm one of those "shadetree mechanics" that makes $300 per vehicle for 2-hour OHC valve shim jobs. Why? Because competant mechanics are too few and far between ;)