2002 Suburban a/c rattle, clutch?
 

Sorry for the Suburban question on the Blazer Forum, but I have had a great deal of success with help on this site with my Blazer. So, hopefully someone can help with the Suburban.

I have a 2002 1500 4x4 with a 5.3. This has a belt on the lower front of the motor just for the a/c, on vacation the belt broke. This is the second year in a row I have had to replace this belt. The a/c does make a racket when at lower speeds getting into the accelerator. I bought this 1 ½ years ago in the winter, so it was months before using the a/c. It worked well, but made this noise and the more I used it the more it rattled. When it quit working last year I took it to the garage thinking it needed charged not knowing of the a/c only belt. He told me the belt broke and the tensioner was probably bad, but he only replaced the belt after all was done. This last weekend after a 6 hour drive from home on vacation it decided to quit again, being 100 degrees out I thought I would stop again and see about the belt and that is what it was. I could see the belt hanging, I got a local shop to put one on. He told me the tensioner was bad and that may be my rattle, but after all was put back together he called back and said the clutch on the compressor was making the noise and working the belt. He wanted $700 to change clutch and or compressor. Being out of town on vacation and a do it yourselfer I wasn’t prepared for the $700, so I just had him leave what he had done to get me home.

The question is, does this sound familiar to anyone? Can I do this myself, clutch or compressor? Is the clutch and compressor separate or on unit? Can these be rebuilt or do I buy new, GM Part or Aftermarket? Any help would be appreciated. I thought if I could replace the clutch only I wouldn’t have to have the system charged?

Thanks for any help, sorry it was so long.

either the compressor or other component is binding bad while turning.if you said the comp was making noise i whould check to see if the bearings were locking up and it might not even start binding until it turns over for a bit and heats the bearings.I assume all the pulleys line up to each other good.

*Moving to The Lounge* - Gotta keep things organized.

I had the belt skip back a tooth on the pulleys on my Tahoe which caused the tensioner to hit a trans line. I replaced the tensioner & the belt and haven't had a problem since. The belt wouldn't have lasted much longer like that for sure. I checked the alignment of the pulleys and found them to be proper. The tensioner had a bit of play in it and was a bit on the weak side compared with the new tensioner. The combination of these two things was allowing the belt to shift on the pulleys.