Was told the problem could be compressor bearings going bad or the belts are too tight or loose. How can I check and find out what the problem is? How hard is to replace either the belts or compressor bearings?

 

First check the belt tension. Best is with a tension gauge, but a Helm manual says how much the belt should move when you push it with your finger. Tell us what year & someone will probably come up with that info.

Too tight can give too much wear on bearings, too loose will let the belt flap & vibrate as it's spinning. But neither one seems like it would shake the car. So I'm gonna guess a pulley that's out-of-round.

Start the car, let it idle, turn on the A/C. Watch the A/C belt, and look carefully at each of it's pulleys. None of them should wobble as they spin. Wait for the compressor clutch to engage, sometimes that makes the wobbling worse. Find the bent one, & replace it.

Belts are easy to replace. How old are they? If the crank pulley is bent, that's a little harder. Compressor clutch or something like that should be harder, but I haven't had to do that (yet).

 

good info :thumbup:

 

thats excellent info...i hope that helps

Just to make sure tho.....if the belts somehow warped the compressor bearings.....how hard are they to change out? Do i have to buy a new compressor? Would warped bearings make my steering wheel, dash, and front bumper vibrate like crazy? thanx again

oh yeh my car is 96 accord sedan ex manual

 

Hi Knight,, nice to meet you .. Seems like a drastic problem for your 96..Jim Blakes on a good path,, I dont know what he does for a living but he knows his Hondas,, its true a bad crank pulley will cause a vibration,, the problem stems from the rubber silencer that your crank pulley has built in that seperates the crank connection to the pulley section,, This can seperate causeing the crank pulley to wobble from side to side while running,, thus a vibration.. But it usually isnt that bad to vibrate the dash or ft Bumper,, Notice I said usually?? Another thing I look for is a bottomed out motor mount, transferring all engine vibration directly to the frame, another is a miss timed balancer belt,another is excessive High pressure side of your AC system..Knight,, the list is endless,,

 

Knight,, I really dont think compressor bearings will cause that much of a vibration.. All they will do is creat a growling noise till they get so bad, then the clutch just falls off the car onto the road you just traveled.. Much to the displeasure of travelers behind you ..

 

thanx for those expert tips lager.....i'll try checking what i can.

What would cause excessive high pressure on the a/c?

Where is the balancer belt located?

 

Knight...
Bearings don't usually 'warp'. They get grindy, noisy, loose, but they usually make all kinds of noise when they go bad. Take the AC belt off altogether, spin the compressor pulley. It should spin smoothly & not at all loose. But the pulley itself can get bent. Any of the pulleys, really, but the crank pulley has that rubber insert that can get flaky.

Compressor bearings probably require the compressor to be rebuilt? But there's also bearings in the compressor CLUTCH, which maybe can be replaced. I'm not sure.

Lager...
I didn't think of engine mounts - good idea... Did they have those funky vacuum-controlled mounts as early as '96?? A mis-timed balance shaft would vibrate all the time, even with the AC turned off? Right?

BTW in real life I'm a mechanical engineer, I just like to work on my own cars. I saw you're a Honda tech, thats pretty cool. There's lots of specific stuff that I only know for the cars I own. I've had a couple VWs, Saabs, a BMW, etc... Bad bearings & belts too tight/loose aren't really special features patented by Honda. That's the kind of stuff that can happen to a Cadavalier or a Ferrari, too.

I had a wobbly crank pulley on my '86 Jetta, and it only made the car vibrate when the AC compressor clutched in. Must be because of the extra load on that belt.

 

i would say bad mounts or low idle speed (vaccum prob). if it doesnt virbrate much/at all at higher engine speeds, its probably not the a/c system at all

 

Hey Dantastic...
Sorry, but the wobbly crank pulley on my '86 Jetta made the car vibrate at idle, only when the compressor clutched in. At driving speed the vibration was at a much higher frequency, and it didn't shake. It's all about what frequency resonates the engine mounts.

On that pulley it was the rubber insert getting old & loose. You could see the pulley run pretty straight, until the AC clutched in. Then you could see it wobble a little, but I was surprised how little wobbling it took to shake the engine.

But, it sure can't hurt to check the engine mounts anyway...