I am passing my 05 grand caravan to my Dad with the knowledge that he will have to get some things fixed on it, but hey it`s a freebee and he is happy to get it. My AC compressor went out last summer. Now the pulley is making a growling noise at me. It is not all the time, and will stop once it starts. My question is, we are supposed to be driving it up to him tomorrow (from NOLA to Dallas) and I was wondering if this is just a noise problem or should I be concerned about the trip. Is there anything I can do short term to fix the problem? Thanks in advance for any help!

 

You must not love him very much. I'd be very worried. How would you feel if the pulley came apart causing the belt to fail which kills the power steering, waterpump and alternator. So there he sits on the side of the road 100 miles from no-where.

 

If you have less than 80k on the van, there is a TSB to replace lines and compressor under warranty. If the pulley fails, like 92dak5.24x4 had said the belt could come off and you don't have p/s or water pump. But if the belt doesn't come off and the pulley sizes, the motor may lock up because of the belt.

 

I just saw a Chevy S-10 Blazer burn to the ground due to an A/C pulley that locked-up which caught the belt and underhood insulation on fire.

 

Yeah,,,what a gift???????

Get the pulley fixed before you unload this van onto your Dad.You'll probably need a new A/C compressor by now but it's impossible to say for sure.
Yes the pulley can fail and leave everybody in the van stranded.

Your own Father,,,,come on.

 

Why do you just reroute the belt? Dont the fan shroud or something under the hood tell you how to disable the ac. It shows a different way of belt routing.

 

No. You would have to remove the compressor and try to find a belt for a van without a/c.

 

Non-ac uses a dummy or idler pulley in place of the ac compressor. I had to fix a lumina 3.1 that some backyard redneck bypassed the ac compressor and had the waterpump running backwards

 

Something is rattling and knocking away in this compressor assembly. In addition, the clutch seems to catch occasionally and the outer whell moves a bit and makes an awful racket. So, it seems my options are to replace the compressor with the idler assembly available in many places, replace the compressor itself, or maybe replace just the clutch. What doesn't seem to be an option is to put a smaller serpentine belt on it and just bypass the whole compressor assembly. It looks like it would be physically possible, but I can't locate any specification for a belt that is the correct size to do this. In fact, the belt spec for this engine with no a/c is a larger belt than with a/c.

Does anyone have any words of wisdom for me here? Obviously I can't drive it like this, so I have to do something.

1. If you are a knowledgeable mechanic, what is the least expensive route to get my car driveable again, regardless of the a/c working?
2. If I do replace the compressor with the idler wheel, which belt do I use, the current one, or the one for this engine with no a/c?
3. Is it possible to replace just the clutch?
4. Anything else you think I should know?

1996 Dodge Grand Caravan 3.8l engine.

 

You just go to the junkyard and get a good used compressor and don't worry about the Freon. That would be the cheapest and easiest route to go. If you're at all handy, figure about 1hr to do the job.