# if ac compressor cluth goes out (break the belt or not?)



## DonaldHays (Jul 22, 2004)

Ok so here is the deal, my ac clutches are going out from what I have been told. I have been told by 4 mechanics different things the first 2 said if the clutches goes all the way out it would lock the compressor up and snap my belt. 

The next one said that it may do that and it may not. The 4th said no that it wouldn’t snap the belts that the ac would just stop working all together.

I cant see spending the 600-1000 to fix it on my Sentra its a 99 Gxe Limited with a lot of miles on it and truthful I wouldn’t give more than 1500 for the car if I seen it for sale. And the fact it’s a 2nd car for me. I was going to drive it more to keep miles off our G35, but if I have to get the compressor replaced I am just going to sell it cheap, as I don’t want to mess with it anymore, plus that fact that the front seals out again. 

Why can’t it be like the older cars and have clutches one can replace and not the whole compressor! My ac is great and works wonderful and blows colder air than the G35 does, but at times the compressor rattles and clicks and makes the car have a major loss of power  

Oh well any info on which it will do break the belt or not will be great

One other thing my idle screw (the plastic one) it has started breaking apart and you cant adjust it, now the idles sitting too low and I cant get it to adjust higher. anyone else had this happen yet? if so how did you get the idle to adjust?

Thanks,

Donnie


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## DonaldHays (Jul 22, 2004)

Ok so we cleaned the idle sensor (done in may 2005 also) it’s at 900rpms with no power on at all. When you click just the ac on it dips down to the 500 and then goes back up to right around 650-700rpms. If you run the ac/lights and radio and try to turn the wheel it tries to go dead due to low idle. Also when the car is put into gear from park or neutral those 650-700 drops down to say 600, the 650-700 is in neutral.

But we can’t adjust the idle since that plastic screw cracked and messed up. Use the cables to adjust it higher? I would think that wouldn’t be a good thing to so myself. 

We turned the ac clutches with the car not running, it had a little force to turn them. At times while turning it makes a clicking sound. Also when the car is running with the ac on sometimes it makes that same clicking sound others it don’t. If the car is at idle 600-700 for it since the screw broke it tends to make that clicking sound a lot more) if you rev it up to say 1,000rpms the click goes away there. 


Thanks again

Donnie


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## IanH (Feb 11, 2003)

DonaldHays said:


> Ok so here is the deal, my ac clutches are going out from what I have been told. I have been told by 4 mechanics different things the first 2 said if the clutches goes all the way out it would lock the compressor up and snap my belt.
> 
> The next one said that it may do that and it may not. The 4th said no that it wouldn’t snap the belts that the ac would just stop working all together.
> 
> ...


Well they are all correct.
The clutch has several important pieces to worry about.
1) the bearing in the pulley clutch assembly. If this is going out the pulley could seize and break the belt.
2) The clutch plate assembly and electrical coil. If either of these break or fail it is unlikely to break the belt.

If the clutch is indeed going out I suggest a used compressor, I have brought several and had good luck.


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## DonaldHays (Jul 22, 2004)

my car is a 99 gxe Limited, I have located some great deals on used ones. but when I look the parts up new on autozone.com the 95 compressor had a item number that didnt match the 99 one and they are the same company. 

would anyone know what years I can put on my 99 Gxe with the 1.6 motor. 

Thanks again

Donnie


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## IanH (Feb 11, 2003)

DonaldHays said:


> my car is a 99 gxe Limited, I have located some great deals on used ones. but when I look the parts up new on autozone.com the 95 compressor had a item number that didnt match the 99 one and they are the same company.
> 
> would anyone know what years I can put on my 99 Gxe with the 1.6 motor.
> 
> ...


In my experience the used part sellers are the experts with this type of question
So i looked up the A/C compressor and the listing for 99 and 98 are both unique
for 97 you get 96 and 97. (car-parts.com)
some time ago on the forum here I remember reading the issue is the A/C piping connectors or something like that.


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