I've been noticing some bearing/pulley noise from the front of my LT1 engine for some time. Dealer replaced the alternator. Not the problem. Now they tell me the noise is coming from the AC compressor and a new one will cost $900. They say the new GM product will have a lifetime warranty. The car is in great condition. I'll spend the money if that's the best way to go. What do you guys think?

 

If you can do it yourself, the parts total to replace the compressor is in the $300-400 range, assuming a brand-new ACDelco unit (get it online from RockAuto).

Whatever you do, don't have the dealer do non-recall, non-warranty work on your car. Dealers typically charge $120+/hour for labor and there's no guarantee that they're any better than the shop down the street that charges $75/hour. In fact, they're quite often worse.

Eventually, the compressor will sieze. You might have a year of funky bearing noises before that happens.

If it siezes when the engine is running, it'll destroy your serpentine belt. Better hope you're paying attention, because no belt means no water pump and no alternator.

If it siezes when the engine isn't running, the starter might not be able to overcome the belt tension, and then you won't even be able to start it. This just happened to me with my 2000 Bonneville, and I paid my favorite (non-dealer) shop a total of $797 to fix it.

Anyway, yeah -- don't mess around with remanufactured or third party stuff when it comes to engine components. You'll save at most a couple hundred bucks, and in my experience, on the average you'll get less than half the life out of the replacement. This is especially true for electronic components, but still applies to things like the compressor.

So yeah, my vote is to get it replaced, but not by the dealer.

 

My old compressor blew up on me. Replacing it was $500 including labor. A/C works fine now and no annoying pulley noise when idling.

 

I replaced my AC comp a month ago with a reman I ordered from Summit for about $260. My whining noise appeared whenever the AC clutch would engage so it was pretty obvious what the source was. I just went to the dealer to evac and charge the system back up, so far so good!