For the past two weeks my A/C clutch has been making a huge racket, rattling and squealing. It looked to be the clutch as I could see it spinning in an unbalanced fashion.

I bought a new clutch and went to install it tonight and found that I was correct. The bearing for the pulley was completely shot to the point some of the ball bearings were missing.

After I got everything apart and down to the compressor alone I noticed a little bit of green liquid, which I'm pretty sure is compressor oil, coming from inside the shaft the pulley bearing rides on, where the compressor drive shaft is. So I'm assuming that the compressor front seal is leaking now, which is disappointing but not surprising as this compressor has 155K on it.

Now, my question is if anyone else has had an experience like this, and if this compressor is about to die, or if I can run it for a short while until I have the funds to replace it?

Thanks,

- Erik

 

It's up to you, but I'd probably run it until I had to replace it. The leaking shaft seal will eventually leak out your charge. Depending on how fast it leaks out, you may be able to milk more time out with with a recharge as needed. At least you know where the leak is at.