Air con rattle

[Dave Avant]

Had the air con rattling a few weeks ago and found the pulley plate needed nipping up, this stopped the rattle. Now its back and slightly worse, tried nipping the pulley plate centre bolt, but this time its not worked, so guessing its the actual pulley.

I have a spare new pulley from when I got the pulley plate (came together), so going to fit this.

Any 'How to's' on here to remove/fit the pulley? Any special tools?

[arman123]

hi mate got this faint rattle at idle when i put the air con on it goes thinking it coukld be the air con clutch plate a bit loose can you just replace the bolt what size bolt goes on seen you thread and just wondering if you sorted yours out i was thinking of putting a locknut on it lookes like a 10mm bolt

[Dave Avant]

Hi, I've had loads of probs with it. First it started rattling, tightened it and it was fine, then it started again. It was the rivets on the front plate had stretched. I tac welded the rivets and it was fine again. Then the air con stopped working. The bolt had fell out. Put it back in, all fine. Then it started rattling again, basically I had to keep nipping it up every few days, which isn't right. It stopped working again, ended up taking the compressor off, which is dead easy, 10 min job. The splines on the shaft had worn causing no drive to the compressor. The fixing bolt had also sheared off. Cut a slot in the shaft, welded a drill bit into the shaft, slotted the drive plate to slip around the drill bit to get drive and welded a threaded stub on the end of the shaft and used a nut to attach the drive plate. It lasted a few weeks, then stopped working again. The drill bit had gonemissing!! Welded a hi tensile bolt in instead and put a copper sleave around the drive plate shaft to stop the welded bolt from coming out. The bolt welded onto the end of the shaft snapped again and rattled, but was still working.

So now it has the bolt still in place, but the drive plate is arraldited on. This seems to cure the rattle I had and its still working, touch wood.

So I'd check the bolt tightness, but don't overtighten as it doesn't need to be really tight. If it still rattles it maybe the rivets in the drive plate. I found tighening the bolt stopped the rattling in the first instance, but that basically squeezed the plate up against the cushion drive of the drive pulley stopping it rattling until they stretched again. You need to have a look at it, but the easiest option is to check the bolt is there and tight. You can get a 10mm spanner on it from the top with the bonnet open. Remove the air intake pipe to get you arm down the front of the engine. You'll probably ended up with scratched forearms!!

[fla]

slight digression - how do you remove the aircon compressor, i have a 1.8T? TIA

[Dave Avant]

Mine is a 1.9 TDi, but yours may be simillar.

Use an allen key to slacken the 2 bolts on the belt tensioner, unhook the belt. You can get to these bolts from the underneath with just the under tray removed.

Feel ontop of the compressor, there is a electrical plug that needs to be unplugged. Just push in and squeeze the end and then pull off.

Follow the black plastic pipe under the engine, it goes through a plastic clip, unclip it - this will allow the compresor to drop further.

There are 3 bolts to remove, top and bottom of the front end of the compressor, accessed from the side of the compressor and one on the back end of the compressor.

The compressor is located on dowels so a quick pull and rattle should see it come off. It is heavy, so lower it slowly. On mine it did rest on the tension of its pipes, but just be sure you can take the weight by tieing it to the anti-roll bar.


If you need to remove it completely, you will need to de-gas the system and disconnect the pipes.

Refit is reverse, except you will need a 17mm ratchet to put tension on the tensioner pulley befroe tightening back up.

[nevo]

Someone is selling a new clutch on ebay for £45.

[fla]

Someone is selling a new clutch on ebay for £45. Good to know thanks. Might be a solution to the current problem, hopefully!