I don't want to spend a ton

[stuckwithabeeter]

I drive a 94 chevy cavalier RS with a 2.2 Inline 4 Engine

I've had this problem for a while with my car for a while and I've just been avoiding it but there's a mettalic sound under the hood that gets worse when i raised RPM's. It sounds like a bearing's going bad. After talking to some people and examining it myself I figure out that it might be something with the AC compressor...I think the clutch is going out on it.

I see that there are AC Compressors on ebay but I don't know what to do. I'm not certified to work on AC systems so I can't do it myself. Should I buy the part and give it to a mechanic to do the rest or what? I just don't want to put a whole lot into this car and I wonder if they can just take it out and put something else where it was. I don't even use the AC

[J-Ri]

First, pull the serpentine belt off and make sure the sound goes away. Then, if it does, spin all the pulleys by hand to be sure that it is the A/C compressor that is making the noise. There can be more than one bad pulley, so spin them all just to be sure. Give them a good wiggle too, sometimes a pulley will get loose even before it gets noisy.

I think that most of the A/C compressors on e-bay are used or cheaply "remanufactured". One of my friends bought one and I installed it for him, so far (only 4 months) it's good. You don't have to be certified to work on an A/C system. The sticker under the hood that says "this system to be serviced by qualified personnel only" or whatever is just for the manufacturers liability. You need to take it to a shop and have the refrigerant sucked out, and take it back to have it recharged, but you can do everything in between yourself.

There are many A/C bypass pulleys that bolt on in place of the A/C compressor to maintain the factory belt and routing. Some engines don't need one, you can just go with a shorter belt. I believe you can do this on the 2.2, but I'm not sure. Check your routing before you try this, many times the shorter rerouted belt will rub on something.