Removing A/C from a Punto

Ferris

My little old lady neighbour has had a problem with her 02 punto. The a/c pump has packed in (I presume it siezed) and the garage want to charge her 1500quid for a new pump fitted or 1150 for a 2nd hand one. This seems to me to be a bit of a rip. (She brought it to the dealer she bought it from and I think they're trying to sell her a new car.)

The car actually won't run i'm told and when the pump siezed there was a burning smell. Like I said i haven't seen the car but it sounds like the pump won't let the car turn over. Any ideas on this, could it be a problem with the clutch to the a/c pump?

Really what I think should happen is that the a/c pump should be disconnected as she never uses it and she can then drive the car as normal. Anyone know how its driven off the engine, is it on the fan belt or does it use a seperate belt?

shamwari

There's a few issues here with this.

When the aircon is off, the clutch is disengaged and this allows the compressor pulley to freewheel. When the aircon is on, the pulley engages and starts compressing the gas in the system, which produces all that lovely cool air. The bit that is unusual here, and what I can't figure out, is what can cause the compressor to sieze solid. I've certainly never seen that happen before. Has anyone tried to free up the compressor pulley?

The other alternative (after looking at the Haynes manual) is to remove the aux belt, which drives the aircon and alternator, and replace it with one which drives the alternator only. Again there could be some problems here. On Punto's with aircon, the aux belt has a tensioner on it to keep the belt tight. Punto's without aircon have no tensioner, and instead the aux belt tension is set by adjusting the alternator on its bracket to pull the belt tight. Assuming you can adjust the alternator in this lady's car then I'd imagine you'll get away with just replacing the alternator belt with that appropriate to the non-aircon model. if you can't do this, then I'd imagine you might have to fit the alternator and / or its mounting bracket from scrap car. Unfortunately the manual has no photo's or pics of the drive belt set up, nor does my Autodata manuals.

Once you can sort out the above then I can see no reason why the car can't be used again. If the owner want's the aircon operational again then there are a number of specialists who should be able to fit a new compressor and regas the system for a fraction of the costs quoted above.

Ferris

Thanks for the quality reply (some serious info there:D), and for confirming what I thought was correct. I don't know the exact cause of the air con failure as its in a garage.

Its just sickening what some garages will try with a little old lady, gives the whole industry the bad rep.

I'll give them a shout for her next and quiz them on what you said. Thanks again.

al2009

compressors can seize solid, i've witnessed plenty! you can price the compressor yourself if you have the make/model, there is a few hours in replacing and the system needs to be pressure tested, recharged etc, for a garage the price is about right, search boards for specialist car air con companies for alternate prices, this really isn't a garage job.

alec

frank gooding

Defo shorter Aux belt and forget about the AC shoudl get out of that for a few hundred.

Sickening that the garage would not give this option.

Man stealers my eye. Find a good independant..