have an 03 honda civic. the car makes a terrible rattling/ grinding sound when i turn it on. its worse from idle though the engine drowns it out at high speeds. kinda sounds michael jay fox holding a tub filled with spoons and forks. just annoying as hell. the sound comes from the serpentine belt area. took all the belts off.

- PS pump pulley. no noise. spins smoothly. no play.
- alternator pulley. no noise. spins smoothly. no play.
- AC compressor pulley, clutch is loose and rattles. i struggle to turn the thing by hand and it feels like there is crushed glass grinding on the inside. safe to assume. its the ac pump pulley.

just to make sure i hooked the battery back up and started the car. lo and behold the noise is gone.
now the pump is easily accessible through the wheel well and im fairly confident i can remove the clutch assembly from right there. im just gonna replace the clutch, pulley, and bearing since it comes in a kit anyway. now ive never worked on an AC system before. do you need to evacuate the refrigerant from the system or is this something i can do without having to mess with the lines at all? like i said im not going to remove the compressor just remove the clutch, pulley and bearing.

thank you for your time. stay safe out there.

 

No you don't need to evacuate the system to replace the clutch set. Just be sure to follow the service procedures for clutch gap or it could look like the new clutch is bad if it won't turn on.

Also while you have it apart take a good look at the insulation on the field coil. If it's original it might be going bad. See if it looks cracked or is flaking.

 

I found this to be a great video when I had to remove a shim behind the A/C clutch pulley so that the clutch could engage again. Hope it helps. Did not need to replace the clutch itself, just remove a shim/washer to bring the air gap closer so that it would engage again. Guess over time the air gap increases such that the magnet can't engage again.