I have a 95 Tahoe that has a noisy AC compressor. My guess is that it is a bad bearing or clutch mechanism. It is noisy on start up, but goes away after running a while. Any thoughts or suggestions? Can you just replace the bearings or clutch mechanism?

Thanks for the help.

 

Does it sound like marbles clattering around not loud enough to hear inside the cab?
If so; it is a common noise that does not usually always indicate failure is immanent.
The bearings are not user serviceable.
I would run it until it fails, I have seen them go forever making this noise.

 

No, it is definitely audible from the cab and surrounding area. It gets less as the vehicle runs, and then it will stop once the vehicle has been running for a while. The sound is more screechy, and does not speed up as engine rpm goes up. Is this the clutch?

 

Ahhh. OK sounds like it could be the clutch or the compressor bearings or possibly a slipping belt but that usually occurs when the pulley becomes hard to spin due to bad bearings.
If you don’t want to have a shop complete the repairs then you could try replacing the clutch and belt and if that does not solve the problem then the compressor is most likely going south on you.
My best guess is a faulty compressor due to the noise not changing pitch with the RPM’s.

 

I have a 1995 Tahoe doing the same thing, My service dept. manager says the comp. is going due to bearing failure. Mine smokes too when a/c is engauged. Needless to say winters coming, it'll stay like that for a while.