I have a noise coming from something being run by my serpentine belt.
First I thought it was the water pump, replaced that and still the same.
Now, the noise is… actually painful to the ear with the hood open it’s so loud.
I’m nearly positive it’s coming from the AC compressor.
Doesn’t sound like it’s coming from the power steering at all.
The AC clutch doesn’t engage either, which makes me further think it’s the AC compressor.
Is it possible that a bad bearing can tax an engine so badly that it causes acceleration to suffer? The symptoms almost seem like a bad cat to be honest. Maybe I have both a bad AC and Cat, who knows. However, mileage has not suffered, still around 28 as of the last fill up.
car is a 2004 grand am, with 3.4… 87k miles.
Also, if I replace the AC compressor, should I also be looking for a clog or something in the coolant line? I’ve read that they don’t go bad for no reason, and something else may be wrong with the system as well.
If you have had total bearing failure I guess something could get into the lines, but then you should replace the whole system to be sure nothing comes back into your compressor although I have never heard of that happening
You can take the serp belt off and run the motor for a bit and even drive up and down the street quick. but before you do that try to turn everything by hand (with the belt off) and see if something doesnt feel right.
yep all of it. the big chunks will be the caught by evaporator and anything else will be stuck on the inside of all the lines from the oil vapor. its highly unlikely so I wouldn’t worry about it. even if it did happen you probably would be ok as the particles that would make it back to the compressor would be fairly small but who knows. Like I said I have never heard of that happening.
and usually its just the clutch that goes bad on those. There is even a tool to pry out the clutch away from the face so they don’t rub. If you do change the compressor don’t leave your system open for too long or you should replace the receiver drier too, which isn’t a bad idea anyways if its cheap…
edit: if its the cats that are plugged you should get HP tuners to tune them out and just hollow the cats. lol
Soooo I did as suggested, pulled the belt off, and nothing made any noise.
until i spun an idler pulley (i didnt even think to check these), and it made a horrible whine.
So I took it to advance, said gimmie a new one yo!
The guy I asked said it was awful, even showed it to another guy working there.
Bought a new one, put it on… car is super quiet now.
However, funny thing is, the car runs perfect now.
Before I replaced it, it was sluggish through all gears (first it was just 3rd), and struggled going up inclines down the 90.
Car would be doing 3-4k RPMs and still losing speed.
However, after I changed it… the car runs normally.
Odd?
I thought the trans may have been going bad, so I called up a trans shop (The transmission shop, nicely named) and he took it for a spin and it ran perfect for him.
This was right after I changed the pulley… So a thumbs up to Bob over there for taking it for a spin.
I also thought it may have been a clogged cat… But it’s running fine now, so I’m confused :
I did go underneath the car and tap on the cat, as I heard that if you tap on it and it rattles it’s bad… There was no rattling.
Maybe I knocked something free?
It may be possible that the noise the pulley was making was being picked up by the knock sensor as detonation and the computer was pulling a bunch of timing. This would make the engine feel very weak and could make it more noticeable at certain rpms.