jroberts548

I drive a 2003 Accord. I just had the mechanic inspect it, and he found that the A/C compressor bearing is failing. It's making some noise already. Obviously, I'm concerned that the compressor will fail and do something to the serpentine belt, leaving me stranded and possibly with several more expensive repairs.

The mechanic quoted me about $1050 to change out the compressor, including changing the belt, the a/c drier, and draining and refilling the refrigerant.

I'm fairly handy. I've been able to do some basic repairs on this car and my previous car. This leads to two questions:

1.) Is replacing the A/C compressor something that an amateur can do? If so, does anyone know where I could find a good, detailed description of how to do it? I can buy a Denso compressor from Autozone for $340, which is a lot cheaper than the $1050 the mechanic wants.

2.) Is it possible to just replace the bearing? How hard is it do that? Autozone has the bearing for $18, which is really cheap, but, of course, not cheap at all if I'm just going to make things worse.

jroberts548

Alternatively, does anyone know what size belt I would use, and how to route it, to just bypass the a/c compressor until I can have the mechanic fix it?

jroberts548

I ended up putting in a shorter belt to bypass the a/c while I figure what to do with the compressor. I found a pretty good description of how to do that here: http://www.v6performance.net/forums/...ss-delete.html. The part he uses, 555k6, has one fewer rib than is proper, but it still works.

I had a hell of a time getting the belt off in the first place. It's too tight to fit in a ratchet or breaker bar, and I couldn't get enough leverage using a normal 14mm wrench. I had to check a couple different stores for a longer wrench, and ended up settling on a kobalt power cross 14mm wrench. It's a little longer than the normal wrench, and is flat, so you can get more leverage on it.

Bakemono36

I used to have a Ford F-150 with this same problem and we tried to replace the idler bearing but ended up breaking the input shaft on the compressor trying to get the new bearing on. Id suggest just replacing the whole thing.
It shouldnt be terribly hard to replace yourself, may take some time and patience though. Thing video might help give you an idea:

jroberts548

I finally ended up replacing the whole compressor. It wasn't too hard, in the end. A few notes for anyone reading who is going to try the same thing.

1. Getting a shop to remove the freon and put it back later shouldn't be too expensive. It ended up costing me $105, and they vacuum pumped the system as well before adding freon.

2. I removed the power steering pump and alternator in order to access the compressor. I would recommend planning on a power steering fluid drain and fill with the compressor replacement. When you unhook the power steering pump the line from the power steering fluid reservoir just kinda sticks around awkwardly. The result is that you're not careful, you end up dumping power steering fluid on the compressor and front axel.

3. The bottom bolts on the compressor are at a really annoying angle. I had to crawl under the car and get them with a double box end wrench. Also, my compressor was held by 15/32 in bolts, instead of 12mm bolts, like everything else. I don't know why that is (I found someone else who said their compressor was held in by 12mm bolts, but the 12mm socket didn't fit. On the other hand, the double box end wrench is labelled bother 12mm and 15/32 in). So even though you can get everything else with a 10mm socket, a 12mm socket, a ratchet, and a 3" extension bar, you should make sure you have a 15/32 double box end wrench before you start.