Pulley Wobbling on A/C shaft

[Al Gray]

I just noticed that when the A/C is on the pulley wobbles on the air conditioner. It does not wobble when the A/C cycles off or the A/C is turned off.

Is this a matter of replacing the pulley or is there some other problem. The air condition unit works fine. Any help would be appreciated. This is for the 1992 BMW 525i which now has 205,000 miles on it.

Best regards,

Al Gray

[Tiger]

Bearing is probably shot on the compressor. Are you sure you are not losing refrigerant? It could be bad clutch... try tightening the clutch.

[Al Gray]

I have not worked on an A/C compressor before. How do you tighten the clutch?

[Tiger]

Whatever bolt you can tighten a bit on the face of the pulley is enough... That is all you can do, if you can physically wobble the pulley, your bearing is shot... Are you sure your idler pulley is not shot?

Idler pulley is that wheel that put tension on the serpentine belt... They usually needs to be replaced every 100,000 miles if not sooner. When this is bad, you hear rattling... also when you take the tension and belt of it... spin it... and you can feel the rattling... that means you need to replace it. Very easy.

[Al Gray]

Whatever bolt you can tighten a bit on the face of the pulley is enough... That is all you can do, if you can physically wobble the pulley, your bearing is shot... Are you sure your idler pulley is not shot?

Idler pulley is that wheel that put tension on the serpentine belt... They usually needs to be replaced every 100,000 miles if not sooner. When this is bad, you hear rattling... also when you take the tension and belt of it... spin it... and you can feel the rattling... that means you need to replace it. Very easy.

I replaced the pulleys including the idler pulley and others that contact the serpentine belt. They were all replaced two years ago. The pulley in question is the one on the shaft of the A/C compressor.

[632 Regal]

Bearing as suggested. Pm sent.

[yaofeng]

I replaced the pulleys including the idler pulley and others that contact the serpentine belt. They were all replaced two years ago. The pulley in question is the one on the shaft of the A/C compressor.

IIRC the bearing is on the pulley. It is easy enough to remove. I think there is a center bolt (13mm bolt head). I never looked at how to separate the bearing from the pulley as mine was good.