As I was driving home last night, I heard a loud squeal from the engine bay and my power steering failed. Turns out that the A/C compressor (which I had no idea it had since the A/C has never worked) locked up thus burning out the belt from the water pump to the compressor.

To get the car running again, I cut the damaged belt and drove home with no power steering.

My question is this... Is it difficult to replace the compressor? It is certainly difficult to reach.

Thanks!

 

How handy are you? Replacing an A/C compressor is not hard BUT you have to evacuate the gas in there now, then refill it with new refrigerant, make sure all is u to spec and it usually takes an A/C shop to get it all sorted. Or you can get a bypass set up which eliminates the A/C altogether.

 

I find it interesting that you didn't know you had AC but that's another question. If the AC compressor locked up then you will need to either replace the clutch or the whole unit because the belt shares other accessories. So open your wallet as this is going to get expensive. Assuming you had a leak before which rendered the AC system useless then someone in an AC shop will have to go through the whole system. As starters you'll need a new compressor , new receiver drier , new orifice valve , maybe replacement hoses and a condenser. Then a vacuum check and freon fill and you're done. My guess would be anywhere from $700 to $1200 .
On my 89 740 the AC compressor is on a separate belt so if it goes the PS and WP and Alt are on different belts. How is your 90 configured.

 

If someone doesn't know they have A/C, I'd say that this is not a good candidate for DIY A/C system renovation...

A/C work is not exactly straight forward, things have to be evacuated, measured, adjusted, finessed, seals replaced, leaks found and eliminated, new refrigerant to chose, high pressure, low pressure, ambient temperature considered, etc. No, not for the beginner!

 

on a later 240, the PS and compressor share a belt. thats how our 87 is. IPD used to have a kit to replace the compressor with an idler pulley but it only worked on some years, 87 wasn't one of them... anyways, I don't think that kit is available anymore.

we got a dead compressor that had a working pulley, and mounted it, leaving the compressor disconnected. this 87's A/C never worked that well even brand new and we live where its not really required except a few hot days a year, so we've lived without it for 15+ years. when I replaced the radiator, I took the condensor completely out.

 

Thanks for all the responses. We never tried to use the a/c so my solution was to leave the belt off from the water pump to the compressor. As I stated, this causes the p/s to not work but I can deal with that. Any fix to the a/c I will leave to the pros. Thanks!

 

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