grinding...

I figured I'd share this in case anyone knows what exactly is grinding here:

2000 Honda Civic Ex + my gf (at the time):

Stupid girlfriend tries to make a left, coming out of a parking lot, across traffic; 2 of the 3 lanes she's crossing stop, 3rd one doesnt, and a guy in a cadillac takes off the entire front end of my civic (up to, and including, 1/2 of the radiator).

BUT WAIT, theres more...

stupid ex then proceeds to drive my car 2/3rds of the way BACK home, after picking up my front bumper and placing it in the trunk...the car was, obviously, leaking coolant, but still made it home (about 2 miles, uphill). Onto the grnding: The drivers-side fender was pushed into the alternator and power steering (I assume) pulleys, but not so far as to stop their spinning.

The body shop bent the fnder back, replaced my radiator, bumper, and a headlight; the car was back in running condition, EXCEPT that it still makes a light grinding noise. I replaced the pulleys and ensured that there were no obvious obstructions to their path - I figured that the noise was a bearing somewhere (because thats what it sounds lke) - and waited for whatever device the bearing was in, to fail (cant afford to get any major components replaced).

I've taken it to a dealer, twice; they could not figure out what is making the noise, and the car seemed to pass all of their expensive little diagnostic tests.

Lately (about 8k miles after the crash), the noise gets worse. It is faint at first, but by 2.8k rpm you can hear it clearly over the engine, and over the stereo, right after 3k rpm, the noise is back to the faint buzz that was before 2.8k.

Here's the part that gives it all away: Turn on the AC, and the noise is gone, completely, but come to a complete stop (at a light, for instance) with the AC on, and sometimes the engine will 'kick' (like its going to stall, but recovers).

Anyone have any idea what part in the whole AC/pulley setup that's bent, or misaligned? I'm really not worried about it, because I don't think that secondary parts like that will kill my engine if they fail, but I'm sure the AC pulley setup is dragging on my engine, and causing undue stress on the rest of the parts...

Just thought I'd share;
thanks, and have a nice weekend, people.


-beau

sounds like the compressor is making that grinding noise, take the ac belt off and try and spin teh compressor and see if it makes that noise

It should also be part of the insurance claim (if there was one) which covered the car repair.