In April the serpentine belt began squealing, and this was diagnosed as a bad air conditioning compressor. The connection with the compressor seemed straight forward because when I would turn on the air conditioning, there would immediately be belt squeal, and when I turned it off, it would go away. A mechanic verified this while watching the AC clutch. The shop told me this would be about $600-800 for a new compressor plus labor. I didn’t have the money at the time, so I declined, and disconnected the electrical pigtail from the compressor clutch to prevent an engine fire or compressor blowing up.
Fast forward to today. It’s the hottest week of the summer and I’ve been without air conditioning since April. Then I noticed this:
That’s not right! The belt shouldn’t come across the top. Here is the correct belt routing for the 3.7:
All fixed as of this afternoon.
The squeal is gone, and the air conditioning functions fine. And I am not $600-800 poorer.
So, what happened? I had the water pump replaced in April, and they must have put the belt back on incorrectly afterwards. In the incorrect arrangement, there was only 1/2 the belt contact on the AC compressor pulley, allowing the belt to slip when the clutch was engaged.
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AtTheHelm Front Recovery System & Roof RackM116A3 Trailer build thread: viewtopic.php?f=72&t=77997