Help!! more car problems

ChocolateLab33

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I have a 97' GrandAm (73K) that has been making a noise coming from under the hood for several months now. I can only describe the noise as if you were to take a baby rattle and shake it as fast as you possible could-sort of like a shhhimmy sound only very fast. Anyway, yes I did have it looked at and was told it was most likely the a/c compressor. Figures. So yesterday morning coming home from work it was pretty warm out and I decided to test the a/c. It's barely blowing any air and the air it is blowing is not very cold. So I got home and called around and was quoted $600 from one place: $350 for a compressor, $175 labor, the rest to recharge the system. A mechanic my good friend knows quoted me $525 but he said the compressor was re-manufactured. The first guy never mentioned the word re-manufactured.
My questions are do you think $500-$600 is a fair price to fix this? Is re-manufactured the way to go? How much is a new compressor?
I never had any problems with the a/c until now. It worked so good it would blast me out at the lowest setting. I'm sick of putting money into this car but on the other hand, I don't want a car payment. I just put new tires on it too. Help!
 

Pydpiper

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One more thing to have checked first is your tension pulley for your serpentine belt, it fit's the noise. However, it has no effect on your A/C.
A/C's are expensive to fix, I wouldn't worry about getting a refurb though, they can and often are as good as the original equipment.
The fishy thing here is the lack of air from the vents, regardless of whether the compressor is making cold air the fan should be blowing hard, those two are not connected. The fan will blow whatever is fed into it, but a bad compressor will not affect the air flow, just the temperature.
 

Pydpiper

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glockboy said:
call around to see if any of them can check it for free, maybe you only got a leak.

Have a UV flashlight? They test for leaks by identifying a additive in the freon (or whatever they use now) and the leak is spotted under UV.
 

DUQ

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Does it make the noise when you turn the fan on or is it there all the time? Sounds like a bad blower motor. To do the UV test, a UV reactive dye needs to be added to the refrigerant first. I also Google'd the problem and noticed that the blower(fan) motor problem always comes up. Maybe take a look for leaves and crap stuck in the fresh air intake. Its the black plastic area at the bottom of the windshield.
 
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BIGIRON

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I also think it might be something other than the compressor, which has nothing to do with the volume of air.

You can do the compressor yourself since the '97 will use R134 gas. You should be able to buy a re-man compressor, a dryer and a venturi valve and a couple of cans of gas for well under $300. A $7.95 filler hose from WalMart and a $10 set of hose "unlockers" and you're good to go.

A Clymer or Haynes manual for under $20 will tell you how to do it (and a lot of other stuff)
 

ChocolateLab33

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Well, my brother-in-law told me to look by the compressor and see if the thing a ma jig attached to it is spinning when I turn the a/c on. It's not spinning so I guess that means the clutch is bad plus I can see metal shavings on it-hence the noise so I guess it's time for a compressor. Labor to fix the clutch will be costly so the whole thing is going to be replaced.
awman.gif


It's still better than a car note. My car is in REALLY good condition so I want to keep it but I'm tired of things breaking on it.
icon3.gif
 

Aaron1100us

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$70 or so will get you a new clutch $30 for a recharge kit from wal mart (might need another can of R-134a and then some spare time will get you fixed for around $100 or so. Its pretty easy to change out the A/C clutch, and then add the right amount of freon. It is best to pull a vacuum and then charge but you can do it yourself and save some money. My jeep has a small leak that I haven't got around to fixing yet so I just fill it up once a year with the correct amount of freon. If you do have someone else fix it and you want a new compressor, a remanufactured one would be ok. $188 at Parts America. Is your car a V6 or 4 cylinder?
 

James S

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glockboy is right, in every car I've played with there is a low pressure switch on the AC system to keep from burning out the compressor if you loose too much gas. Might be worth a recharge kit before you do anything else just to make sure that a slow leak isn't the problem.

But if you can look at the clutch and suspect it's really hosed and disintegrating as you say metal shavings, it might be obvious, or it might just be dirty and working fine...

You also say it didn't blow much air? The blower motor under the dash can go bad, have bad bearings and also more commonly get crap stuck in it that buzzes or rattles like marbles in a hamster wheel ;) If that part isn't working either, then no amount of work under the hood will get it to blow cold air, if it doesn't blow any air at all...

Just a little over a month ago i traded in my 95 saturn that was also in terrific shape and the engine ran great, but it was just starting to have too many other, unexpected repairs. So I traded it in on a new one with fized and budgetable expenses for the next few years. At some point it's not worth the trouble anymore.
 

snakebite

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that clutch/pulley assy can be replaced.you can rent the puller at autozone.
the bearing in the hub is what went bad.
fix it soon or you may do damage via overheating when it throws the belt.
 

IsaacHayes

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I don't think it would throw a belt, as if the clutch went out, it won't engage and put a load on the belt, thus it doesn't cool the air.

Anyways, sounds like the clutch is toast. I don't know how mechanically inclined you are, but I always fix stuff for myself or friends. A clutch is simple to do, but you might want to put a pressure gauge and make sure you have full pressure too.

I have a full set of gauges (high side, low side) and a vacuum (when you disconnect a hose you have to pull to full vacuum before adding freon to get rid of moisture and air). I'm going to have to replace my whole compressor on mine, the clutch is fine but it's leaking around the case seam. :( I'm hoping to get one for no more than 150, then I got to get 3x$10 cans of 134a freon, and put in a new expansion valve and drier at that time is a good idea. I wish you lived by me I'd just do it for you for a lot less, and check for leaks and pressure while at it.

If you attempt to do it yourself, jacking up the front and maybe removing the wheel, then remove the plastic splash gaurds in the wheel wheel might let you get to the compressor clutch pulley easily.

You will also need a serptintine belt tensioner tool (the belt on your's has a spring loaded tensinoer) so you can put slack on the belt and take it off the pulley on the compressor.
 

snakebite

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the pulley has a bearing in it.
this is what is likely bad.the magnetic clutch just hooks up the compressor.
if the bearing siezes it will fry the belt fast.
 

cobb

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James S should post you the soultion to my ac problem. :)
 

ChocolateLab33

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I'm not mechanically inclined so fixing it myself is not an option. I'm going to take it to a place that I know won't rip me off, that is if it's not the compressor, they won't sell me one anyway. I'm going to try to take it in this week. I'll update as soon as I know something. :)
 

cobb

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Bottom line, your likely looking at 300 bucks. Thats my dads experience with getting the AC serviced with his car yearly in his 240d mercedes.
 
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