Air Con: A/C Clutch Loose

[AidXC90]

Originally Posted by seandodwell

Hi, I had the same issue on my 2007 XC90 SE, the AC clutch was F*** when I bought the car, it had crap covering the whole side of the engine bay, in brown fine powder(clutch material from slipping clutch). Mines a 3.2 Petrol engine. Looked around for spare clutche but could not find a matching one (theyre lots of different types!). in the end I bought a whole new compressor for around £280.00 exact one I was replacing. I got a mobile AC guy to come de-gas, replaced the compressor myself(inc new belt and idler pulleys)A bit fiddly, but do-able. Then got same guy to re-gas, total cost about £450. Volvo wanted to charge more than that just to replace the pulley!! Now I have lovely cold AC and a much quieter engine.!!

8FK 351 322-171 HELLA Compressor air conditioning

From Premier Line on ebay. I know its a bit extreme, but if you end up facing a massive bill from Volvo might be an option. Good luck let us know what Volvo say...?

Sean, did you also replace the "Dryer" at the same time? I've seen a few references that say this must be done when replacing a compressor - as well as having the system flushed - in order to preserve the warranty of the compressor. It seems to cost between £10 and £20 so it doesn't seem to be a deal breaker in terms of overall cost but might need a bit more work on my part

[Tannaton]

Originally Posted by AidXC90

Hi again chaps and thanks for the replies.
Here is what I've discovered. Volvo will fit new customer supplied compressors and clutches but will only guarantee their work, not the part. They wont fit used items. Their labour charges and sundries such as O-rings and gas etc. are about £450 for the compressor job or £650 for the clutch. If they supply the components as well, the costs increase to £1200 and £930 respectively. So once I've had the car towed back to my house, I'm going to do the job myself after getting a mobile chap to de-gas the system.
I suspect I'll need a new compressor since the way it's rattling around I'm presuming its shaft or the hole it fits into in the compressor body is broken. I can't say for sure yet without looking at it but I'm assuming a worst case scenario for now. I guess it makes sense to replace the pulleys and belt etc. while I'm in there...
I'll let you know how I get on.

You do not need to de-gas the system to change the compressor clutch - you can do this with the compressor still in the car and connected to the high pressure pipes.

You will need to make a puller to get it off, have a search on the P2 V70 forum there is an article on there (possibly 10 years old). I've done this with ease on many XC90 and P2 V70/S60.

EDIT: https://www.volvoforums.org.uk/showthread.php?t=220277

[AidXC90]

Originally Posted by Tannaton

You do not need to de-gas the system to change the compressor clutch - you can do this with the compressor still in the car and connected to the high pressure pipes.

You will need to make a puller to get it off, have a search on the P2 V70 forum there is an article on there (possibly 10 years old). I've done this with ease on many XC90 and P2 V70/S60.

EDIT: https://www.volvoforums.org.uk/showthread.php?t=220277

Hi Tannaton, thank you for the link which is very interesting. If I get stuck I shall have to get in touch with D5meister to use his pullers. Some Youtube advisors remove the clutch and pulley without the use of pullers - seems a circlip and friction fit is all one needs to work with which is awkward but doable if it's not rushed - but maybe the Volvo system is different? Anyway, once the car is back with me I'll be able to poke around and see how good or bad the access is to the clutch area and what the exact damage is. The way the clutch is moving around I'm not sure what's holding it in place anymore as I think its only the one central 10mm or 14mm bolt that fixes it in place. The pulley itself seemed quite stable last time I saw it so I therefore presume it's only the clutch that's come loose - though not enough to fall off completely yet. Perhaps that central bolt has just worked itself loose? My main concern is that it might have damaged the shaft inside the compressor in the process. I'll let you know what I find this weekend.
Thanks again to all for the advice.

[oragex]

I too did this job myself, no need to disconnect the compressor - a decent garage should have no trouble in 2-3h. I would tow the car to a local place, I agree about not running the engine, if the belt fails, your D5 will be dead = new car

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAGDkwYSFY4

My take is to get a used compressor from Ebay or breakers, buy a new bearing - see the brand I recommend, really get only a good brand, and swap the clutch, put the new bearing, adjust the shims. Test your compressor by the same, it case it got some damage. I also linked the tool but better get a better more solid brand. The thing is when removing the clutch even with the correct tool, one may need to apply extra force on the clutch plate with such tool as a screw driver which may deform it - so care must be taken not to force on it unevenly

[AidXC90]

Originally Posted by oragex

I too did this job myself, no need to disconnect the compressor - a decent garage should have no trouble in 2-3h. I would tow the car to a local place, I agree about not running the engine, if the belt fails, your D5 will be dead = new car

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAGDkwYSFY4

My take is to get a used compressor from Ebay or breakers, buy a new bearing - see the brand I recommend, really get only a good brand, and swap the clutch, put the new bearing, adjust the shims. Test your compressor by the same, it case it got some damage. I also linked the tool but better get a better more solid brand. The thing is when removing the clutch even with the correct tool, one may need to apply extra force on the clutch plate with such tool as a screw driver which may deform it - so care must be taken not to force on it unevenly

Thank you for your useful advice and links to the videos, Oragex. I'll be re-watching your compressor clutch video a few times, I think.
I got the car back on my drive yesterday - towed back from Volvo - so I'll start investigating it soon. I'll report back, perhaps with pictures...

[AidXC90]

Hello all,
I started to investigate the cause for the A/C clutch problem and found that, as Binty guessed, the little 10mm bolt that holds the clutch onto the compressor had come loose. Smart man, Binty.
It had fallen off completely so I'm not sure what is still holding the clutch in place. It engages and disengages but can't be removed? It can be rotated eccentrically around the face of compressor - a bit like a dual action sander pad - but feels like something else is still holding it in place, which is confusing as I thought there was only one bolt holding the clutch to the compressor.
Anyway, I found the bolt fortunately wedged between the subframe and a plastic wheelarch cover piece. As you can see from the attached photos, the bolt is undamaged. I can't see into the hole in the compressor shaft that the bolt screws into so I can't ascertain yet whether or not the hole's threads are damaged, but considering the perfect state of the bolt, I'd imagine the hole's threads are okay.
I also found a small plastic cap lying on the subframe next to the bolt - also pictured - and I was wondering if this is perhaps a cap that is supposed to cover the bolt. Does anyone know if this is the case? Fyi, my engine is a 2005 reg (2006 model year according to the VIN search on a parts website) 185bhp D5.
If I can simply screw the bolt into place again - does it need thread-locker? - I hope to be good to go. Access and vision is very limited between the compressor clutch face and the side of the engine bay so I might struggle to see if there is any dangerous damage to the clutch or compressor without unbolting the compressor and moving it aside while hopefully leaving the A/C pipes in place.
As a related aside, my car's belts are overdue a change now, so after bingeing on SiRobb and Oragex videos I think I'll take the opportunity to change the serpentine belt and timing belt. I might as well do that now. More pictures to follow...

[AidXC90]

• To get to the A/C compressor I chose to work from above ...
• Remove the power steering pump (just unbolted it and moved it aside after undoing the high pressure fluid hose – careful of steering fluid loss and cover the alternator with a plastic shopping bag until the steering pump and hoses are out of the way and not leaking).
• Remove the alternator from the car. Be cautious with the 4 x compressor retaining bolts, the top two of which also retain the alternator – remove them with gentle, patient persuasion and penetrating fluid because access to them is limited, in particular the lower two bolts. If they are corroded and shear off in the holes... well, let’s not go there. With the alternator and power steering pump out of the way you’ll have enough space to access the A/C compressor. (See Pic 01)
• I was able to leave the compressor gas hoses connected so I didn’t have to have the compressor de-gassed, which is nice. The hoses are just flexible enough to allow you to pull the compressor up so that you can see and access the clutch face. I put a block of wood under the compressor to hold it at the required angle. (See Pic 02)
• Disconnect the top radiator hose from the radiator, leaving the other end attached to the thermostat housing on the engine. The hose can be pushed aside as needed.
• Remove the large turbo hose (I think that’s what it is, it goes from the right-hand side of the radiator to the large plastic pipe in the front of the engine).
• Block all holes/ tubes/ pipes etc. to avoid contamination.
Once I had the compressor at a suitable angle, this is what I found:
• My clutch assembly is unlike Oragex’s one so I couldn’t use his homemade tool method to remove the clutch because the three holes he used to screw the tool onto the clutch were, on mine, only about 2mm deep and unthreaded.
• I could not remove the loose clutch plate because it was originally fixed to the central portion behind the central collar, so the hole in the centre of the clutch was smaller than the central collar’s diameter. This meant the clutch, though completely loose, was trapped underneath the central collar. The design of the clutch and collar’s edges meant I could not get a bearing puller under the collar with the clutch plate in situ. (See Pic 03)
• So the clutch plate had to be removed first. I set about cutting it off using a multi-tool with a metal blade, trying to cut through the plate at diametrically opposed positions to remove it from under the central collar in two halves. I used a vise grip to clamp the central collar to the clutch plate to stop them moving around, and a screwdriver under the clutch plate to keep the blade from damaging the pulley face if it suddenly cut through. As it happened, I’d got about ¾ of the way through the second cut when the central collar fell off the splined shaft. The vibrations from the multi-tool and the leverage of the screwdriver must have dislodged it, fortunately.
• The wearing face of the pulley that the clutch engages onto, as well as all other surfaces, were covered with very thick, gooey residue – like semi-solidified bitumen. It’s very thick and sticky stuff and I’m pretty sure it is what remains of the engine bay sound insulation pad that was on fire originally. It seems to have melted under the friction of the A/C pulley/clutch assembly and subsequent fire and coated pretty much all surfaces of the clutch and pulley as well as some of the pulley grooves. There seemed to have also been a sort of seal that I think used to sit between the inner rim of the clutch and the outer rim of the central collar, but I suspect that melted as well and added to the mix of black muck. Most images of clutches that fit my model seem to have such a seal. I think that the goo had dried after I had parked the car for about an hour-and-a-half, so when I re-started the car, the clutch plate sheared through its fixings when it engaged with the pulley face or perhaps couldn’t properly disengage due to the bitumen-like stuff gluing it to the pulley face? I can’t be sure but this seems a likely scenario. What else would make a clutch plate shear through its fixing points? (See Pic 04)
• I used a bearing puller to pull the pulley off the compressor
• I unscrewed the three Phillips head screws holding the coil onto the compressor’s face, unclipped its connection clip from the compressor body and removed the coil easily.
• As you can see, in addition to the sticky residue, there were a lot of metal filings from the cutting operation that had adhered to the assembly, even getting into the space between what the pulley’s bearing slides over, and central splined shaft. (See Pic 05)
• Liberally spraying brake cleaner into this area and using a lot of blue shop towel and long-nosed pliers enabled me to clean this area effectively. Apart from this residue the splined shaft and the 10mm bolt’s hole in the shaft’s centre were both undamaged which is very fortunate. The central shaft has no play in it so I think the compressor is still good. I just have to replace the other parts. (See Pic 06)
• So the clutch is destroyed. I cleaned the pulley with Jizer and was able to see a few nicks and scratches on the pulley face possibly caused by the loose clutch plate or perhaps my screwdriver. For the price of new items – clutch plate, pulley and coil are about £60 from one supplier vs. £268 for just the clutch plate from FRF with the C3 discount – it makes sense to me to replace all three items. I have to spend more money on the overdue timing belt and auxiliary belt and necessary pulleys and tensioners, (plus a special tool or two!) so such a saving isn’t to be sneezed at. (See Pics 07 & 08).

I hope the above is helpful to some members. Apart from the fire and resulting gumming up of the parts which will be, hopefully, unique to my car, the removal and dismantling of the clutch, pulley and coil is quite typical. If you can tilt the compressor enough and support it with something like a block of wood to give you sufficient access, the rest of the job is quite easy – uncomfortable on the front thigh muscles as you’re leaning over the engine bay straight legged for quite a while - but easy enough to do. Thanks to all the other forum members for the advice and videos which helped to guide me thus far.