My wife's '96 Z24 has been making a metal-on-metal scraping kind of noise lately that doesn't seem to be RPM dependent - sounds the same whether at idle or full throttle.
What's odd about the sound, though, is that if you turn on the AC it goes away!
Any ideas what could be causing this?
well that is kind of strange.
you should check the belt first, check to see if it has any cracks/splitting/rips in it.
if the belt is fine, take the belt off and try spinning each pulley by hand. if none of them make that same sound then move on to thinking that one of your belt-driven components might be going bad soon. it seems to me that it only does it with the A/C off because when you turn on the A/C it adds a bit of tension to the belt because the A/C clutch is spinning.
also, if all of that fails, it might just be your compressor going. I honestly have no clue what it could be, sorry, but this is where I would start.
say hello to the end of your AC clutches life, could be today could be tomorrow could be 3 years. i know how you feel and i absolutely hate it.
that's exactly what it is, the A'C Compressor clutch is scrap. get a new one. dont think too expensive
96 Sunfire,SE/GT, 2.4L Twin Cam, est 180hp
Mine is doing the same thing. Took a look at it and I saw small metal shavings on the AC compressor. SO I figured it was that so I am just waiting til that goes. Good thing winter is coming so I don't need to use it that often til summer.
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Red 1997 Sunfire GT bonestock
White 2003 Nissan Spec-V I/H/E/P/MMI/GW/SS
mine does the same thing too!! my AC doesn't even work anymore though. but after i wrecked and got a new condensor it worked for awhile then stopped (it made that noise) then i refilled the refridgerant and it worked for about a month and now it doesnt. so i might be leaking but then that doesn't explain the noise!
you can replace the bulley and clutch asm... but if you dont have the money you can pull the clutch off a hair to buy some time but you need a special puller
I just got a new AC compressor since I was in an accident. The car never made that noise before. Any chance they were supposed to change this clutch
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