I narrowed down the noise in my GF's neon to the AC.

It's a bit of a rattle kind of sound that lessens when you turn the AC on (but doesnt completely go away). The AC isn't blowing cool air when it's on either.

Is it possible that it's just the AC clutch that needs replacing?

Or will I have to replace the entire compressor?

 

BTW...this is for an 01 neon with 120K on it.

Looks like I can buy an entire compressor with clutch and pulley on ebay for about 50 bucks from cars with ~50K miles on em.

I may just take a chance with that and swap the entire unit out.

So a follow up question...how hard is it to remove the AC from this car? When I was under it it looked like there wasnt much space for it to drop down...possibly some brackets need to be taken off before it can be pulled?

 

Mine was just a bad clutch, but a standard 3 jaw puller wouldn't get it off the compressor. I ended up nearly destroying it, and in the end could't it off. I'd just replace the whole thing, I'm guessing a special puller is required. Not sure on getting the unit off the engine, mine was on a 2.2 L Dodge Shadow, which had a lot more room in the engine compartment. I know it's pretty tight in there.