Hello to all,

this is my first post here.

My girlfriend who doesn't have a lot of money has a problem with her CRV. The engine sounded like it was going to fall apart friday. I towed the CRV to my local trusted mechanic who advised it was a several fail of the bearing on the A/C compressor.

Prior to this issue, the A/C failed mid summer. I added refridgerant and it lasted a day.

My fairly trusted mechanic claims he called two parts distributors he uses and they do not sell only the clutch/bearing assembly. He claims the dealer does, and that runs around $250. Naturally this fix will only get her back on the road, but not fix the A/C ( which is fine ) . He claims he can try to get the part, and attempt to remove the clutch/bearing assembly with everything on the car. Just to get her back on the road. He said he can only try, but doesn't know if that's how the mechanics of the compressor works, or if he has enough room.

The other option is to replace the entire compressor which costs about $400, and $300 in labor. I read through this site on compressor failures on 2002-2006 CRV's, and i feel this would be a bad option as the compressor will likely fail soon afterwards due to system contamination from the bad compressor anyways. But really, we just need the vehicle running, and don't care about how long the A/C will actually keep the car cold.

Regardless she can't drive the vehicle as the engine literally seems like it's going to fall apart when running due to the bad bearing/clutch. I'm fairly mechanically inclined, and i thought for sure the engine threw a rod, or spun a bearing or something real bad. Thats how bad the thing was making noise.

I really just want to get her on the road. She is a single mother of 2 with a mortgage and does not have a lot of money. My mechanic said this engine was not made without A/C and he can't just remove the a/c and run the engine with a new shorter belt.

I need to know what the cheapest way is to get this vehicle back on the road ASAP.

Please help!