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Tahoe & SuburbanThe power, space, and brutal towing ability make the Tahoe and its longer sibling, the Suburban, arguably the best full size SUV's on the market today.
I considered attaching to the high side of the compressor and running it for a short period but wasn't sure what the high pressure limit on the bottle was and therefore didn't try it.
My Ooops on YOU being the original poster. I'm now able to get the video to play, and still am firm on the AC clutch bearing noise as I detailed earlier.
As to your comments about refrigerant, I agree completely that the government blew it with R-12. As a scientist, R-12 worked great and is non-flammable. The issue was that being so available for Gomer and Goober back then, and its low cost, way to many would simply add a can refrigerant to a leaky system, and repeat that process; I'm not talking about the "one can in 3 years folks". I'm sure some backyard mechanics still do similar "add a can" temporary fix with their R134a vehicles.
I believe the current R134a regulations prevent professional mechanics from filling a leaky system with R134a except for use in the diagnosis of leaks. I would've made R-12 policy to be like that, and would've restricted the sale of R-12 to non-qualified individuals, like it is now in the USA. That alone, without additional engineering like that required for use for R134a, could've stemmed the R-12 issue.
As we know, R-12 was just one of the multitude of chemicals that can affect the atmosphere. Emissions come from burning of hydrocarbons, animal gases, methane from wastes, but primarily all is a result of overpopulation of the planet; none of these were real issues when there was less than a billion people.
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Who is going to give up eating/using animal products? Who is going to give up the Suburban they use for family vacation and use a small efficient vehicle 51 weeks and then rent the big vehicle for that 1-week use? Not many. And remember that getting rid of that older vehicle and replacing with new means that pollution is caused just by the manufacture and transportation of all those thousands of new parts.
The earth has forever had temperature cycling; in the Middle Ages there was a cooling period called the Little Ice Age, affected worldwide economies, crops, disease, wars, etc. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Ice_Age And then there were the true Ice Ages. The issue is very complicated; one big volcano eruption could throw the planet into a cold spell.
Understand that I think that some federally mandated safety requirements were good ideas. I like the safety switch on clutch pedals requiring that to be pressed down for starter to operate. I like the requirement for seat belts (but didn't like the required interlock system of the mid-1970s. I like mandated air bags, but I have 3 vehicles that do not have those (as they are 1970-1988); those do not have ABS, third brake light either.
You certainly covered a lot of ground here. I particularly liked what you said about overpopulation. It the elephant in the room that no one speaks of these days. Unfortunately there is nothing we can do about it, since most people want children, and those children will inherent the awful mess the planet is in. That of course
includes all of the Fukushima radioactive substances realised into the Pacific Ocean killing sealife & rendering much of the seafood as a possible danger to consume.
Hi everyone. I’m the OP, btw. Thanks for all the responses. I got a stethoscope (why didn’t I think of that earlier?) and the whistle was definitely loudest on the bracket right behind this pulley:
That’s the idler pulley, right?
The A/C, alternator, and water pump had no whistle / whine through the stethoscope.
So should be pretty straightforward fix. I’ll try to get it done after work sometime this week, or the coming weekend. Camping season is coming up, and this is our tow rig, so can’t be fooling around.
I got a stethoscope (why didn’t I think of that earlier?) and the whistle was definitely loudest on the bracket right behind this pulley:
That’s the idler pulley, right?
The A/C, alternator, and water pump had no whistle / whine through the stethoscope.
So should be pretty straightforward fix.
That is the idler pulley. So you got lucky, that fix should take less than 20 minutes. I like to draw a diagram of the routing of the serpentine belt for myself before removing that belt. If it's time, replace the serpentine belt with new, and keep the present one as a spare in the vehicle, like near the tire changing tools. On your engine, a seized compressor pretty much makes the vehicle immobile (my 2005 6.0 liter has a separate AC belt and idler).
Good. When you removed the serpentine belt, did you spin the existing idler pulley by hand? Or after you removed it? Most times one can feel or hear a bad bearing that way.
One pulls the serpentine belt and then spins the alternator, idler, ac clutch, etc. by hand to try to identify a bad bearing.
Yes, I spun the idler pull before removing it, and afterwards. It didn't spin very freely, so I couldn't reproduce any sound. I'm not sure I could tell by feel. The new one felt like it spun more smoothly, though, so maybe that's it.
Either way, after driving around yesterday for work and errands, no more noise. Yay!
Yes, I spun the idler pull before removing it, and afterwards. It didn't spin very freely, so I couldn't reproduce any sound. I'm not sure I could tell by feel. The new one felt like it spun more smoothly, though, so maybe that's it.
Either way, after driving around yesterday for work and errands, no more noise. Yay! Thanks everyone Much appreciated.
"It didn't spin very freely" Yep, that's the test; you found the bad part, bad bearing in that idler pulley. Good job, might've been a $150-$200 repair at a shop. If you heard a sound while spinning it, it would be different than what you heard in operation anyway.
March 3rd, 2019 | 11:42 AM
