It's been making a whining noise for a while now, but it got much worse last week. Something between grinding and whining. It does it whether the AC is on or off and my AC has not worked for at least a year. A mechanic said that the bearings on the ac compressor are bad. This makes sense to me based on where the noise is coming from. He also said that it could seize completely and then snap the belt that drives it. Since this belt also drives the alternator, I was wondering if there is a way to circumvent the AC compressor, and just run a different length belt from the alternator to the main pulley.

Also, soon after the noise started my car began having trouble starting. It seems to crank fast enough, just won't turn over. Regarding this, the mechanic said its most likely a bad distributor. Not sure what RPM it's cranking to since my tachometer is broken. Any ideas if these could be related?

note: I posted this in the G20 forum but I'm not sure it's the best place for it. If any admins want to remove it from there or here, thats fine by me.

I think this is the correct forum for your question. I wonder if you're dealing with two separate issues or just one? I would recommend getting a mechanic's stethoscope like this one. http://www.harborfreight.com/mechanics- ... 41966.html It's a valuable tool for pinpointing noises.

I don't see a problem bypassing the compressor and using a belt that drives the alternator only - but you may have an issue finding the correctly sized belt. The probelm is probably the clutch assembly on the compressor, since you say you hear the noise with the compressor either on or off. You might be able to get by with a new clutch assembly and recharging your a/c system if nothing else is wrong with it.

Not sure on the distributor, but I have rarely heard of them making noise and failing...

Heath

As far as using a different belt, how would I go about finding the right one? I think the G20 came with AC standard but I did find this http://www.overnightautoparts.com/store ... 4294962967 (the bottom one). Also, I found belts for the 200sx se-r and the sentra se-r that were just for the alternator and not the AC. However, they are all 4-rib belts and the AC/alternator belt for the G20 is 6-rib. Does that make a difference? (I assume it does).

I was trying to avoid taking the compressor off, but how hard would this be and would I need special tools? (As a reference for what I think is hard, it took me a few days days to change the transmission clutch on this car). I was not able to find just the clutch for the compressor, but I did find this http://www.overnightautoparts.com/store ... 4294951879 , and the mechanic said he thinks the compressor bearing is the problem.

http://www.infinitipartsusa.com/partloc ... atalogid=0

$279 for the clutch. About $300 more for the whole assembly.

Heath

ouch, thats more for just the clutch than I found the whole compressor for. any ideas on difficulty of replacing the compressor. and if I replace that, should i replace anything else while I'm at it?