My daughter’s driving my old '03 Taurus that’s been having issues. Her BIL looked at it and says that it’s the compressor and she needs to have it fixed. Her uncle says that she can drive the car just fine without it, she just won’t have AC. The BIL then said the compressors not just broken, it’s actually falling off and if it does then there’s a chance a belt will come loose, which could make the engine stop. She’s not sure what she should do. Any advice?
Thanks
“The BIL then said the compressors not just broken, it’s actually falling off and if it does then there’s a chance a belt will come loose, which could make the engine stop. She’s not sure what she should do. Any advice?”
My advice would be to check the bolts that attach the compressor to the engine.
Losing a compressor could be fairly catastrophic in terms of its fallout, so simply checking how well the compressor is secured to the engine should be the first order of business–IMHO.
What’s probably happened is the compressor clutch bearing has failed.
When this happens, the failed bearing grinds down the snout where the bearing mounts to the front of the compressor. And if continued long enough, the pulley on the compressor will separate from the compressor and the serpentine belt will fall off.
They never made an 03 Taurus without AC. So you can’t order a serpentine belt for an 03 Taurus without AC.
So you have to either replace the compressor with another one, or substitute the compressor with something like this.
And when I can’t find one of these substitute pulley’s for a vehicle, I go to the auto recycler and pull a used compressor. I don’t care if the compressor works or not. I just need a good clutch bearing so the serpentine belt can be installed.
Tester
Thanks for the reply. Tester, her BIL says $225 for parts and $150 for labor. Does that price fall in line with what you were talking about?
This isn’t something that she can simply ignore. Some remedy is needed, otherwise she’ll wind up stranded somewhere. And you know when that happens, it seems like it always happens during the worst storm on recent record.
Her BIL is charging her labor!
What the hell is wrong with him!
She’s FAMILY!
As far as price? You don’t say what’s being replaced.
Tester
LOL, no her BIL isn’t the one doing the work. He works around cars but apparently this isn’t his area of expertise. I’ll have to get more details but from what she knows, that’s the price to replace the compressor.
George, we live in Central Florida. So, you’re right, you never know about storms.
If that price is for a new compressor, and it gets the AC working again, that’s cheap!
Otherwise? See if one of the by-pass pulley’s is more in order.
Tester
@htmodad … Remember back a few years when Florida had all those hurricanes? It was one hurricane after another. Well, one of my co-workers here in San Jose decided just before all that happened to move to Florida because he heard there was good fishing there. So he told his wife “I’ve quite my job, we’re moving” and away they went. As you might expect, due to very bad timing, this story didn’t end well … lol … he returned to San Jose about 6 months later, begging for his old job back, said he’d never seen anything like it down in Florida, the weather was so bizarre, and his wife was about to leave him for taking him to Florida and almost getting them drowned … lol . .
On some of those Ford V6’s of that vintage, you can simply leave the broken AC in its place, buy a shorter serpentine belt and install it without going around the AC pulley.
I know on the 2002 Taurus, the (shorter) rerouted belt just clears the AC pulley. I understand some other years do as well.
Thank you, Tester and JoeMario. I will pass along what you said.
GeorgeSanJose, I remember them very well because we were out of power for over 2 weeks during that time. Being without power is bad enough but being without power when it’s hotter than fried Hell is just miserable. Your poor coworker had some extremely bad timing.
@htmodad:
It’s common on those A/C units (of that vintage Ford) for the clutch mechanism on the end of the compressor input shaft to come apart. It produces a loud clang and clatter. The belt will still spin normally around the A/C pulley, but it’s not clear for how long.
If you want to get a shorter serpentine belt to bypass the A/C unit, do a search for others who have done it - there will be suggestions for which part numbers to get.
Another thing to be aware of. The A/C compressor clutch circuit shares the same fuse as the ECU emissions “memory” circuit. If you fail emissions with a P1633 (or something similar indicating the ECU/PCM can’t retain it’s memory), then look for a blown fuse. The A/C clutch coming apart will short out the windings and blow the fuse.
The AC helps dehumidify the air inside the car hr outshot the year. Windshield defogging won’t work nearly as well without the compressor. Also, you know how hot and humid it gets where you live. It seems to me that replacing the compressor is worth the expense.
