caseyctsv Posted April 9, 2014 Report Share Posted April 9, 2014 I have taken great pride in being able to figure out what is wrong with my cars on my own and, in the past have almost always been 100% correct on the diagnosis. While I often fix them myself, at times, I decide the fix is either over my head or just not something I want to tackle. Recently, I "self diagnosed" an issue on my 2002 Suburban that ended up being way off - and cost me some $. I share only to laugh at myself and, perhaps, prevent a similar mistake. In about October I started hearing a grinding noise coming from the front of the motor. I suspected it was the air conditioning compressor as the noise was in that area and it is a known issue on Chevy trucks so I removed the serpentine belt and started the motor - note that there are 2 belts on the Suburban - one that is A/C only. With only the A/C belt on the noise was still there, so I was pretty certain that was the problem. Here is where I made my mistake - I put the serpentine belt back on but I cut a corner and just cut the belt on the A/C - noise went away. Conclusion - needs a new A/C compressor. I drove it through the winter this way with no issues Fast forward to a couople of weeks ago. I take the Suburban to a shop and tell them it needs a new A/C compressor. They replace the compressor as instructed and on my way home the sounds comes back. I am like WTF? I climb under the truck while it is running - there is a freakin tensioner pulley on the bottom that I did not even know was there. If I had taken the belt off the right way I would have known that of course. The pulley is screeching. I go to Napa buy the 25.00 part and by the time I get home the belt is shredded. It took me < 30 mins to replace the pulley. I suppose I just chalk it up to a learning experience and remember all the money I have saved over the years doing it myself. tl:dr version - I screwed up diagnosing a problem on my car and it cost me money - don't do that Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geeesammy Posted April 9, 2014 Report Share Posted April 9, 2014 Chalk it up as a learning experience and remember it never hurts to get a second sets of experienced eyes on it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ForeverMaker Posted April 9, 2014 Report Share Posted April 9, 2014 Wife's car had the a/c compressor fixed under warranty. Few days later I hear noise again, bring it back thinking they didn't flush the system completely or something. All that happened was they didn't replace the plastic shroud around the wheel correctly and it was flapping. If I had just looked I could have fixed it in a minute. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zeitgeist57 Posted April 9, 2014 Report Share Posted April 9, 2014 Thanks for the story, Casey. I'm sure others can learn from your McSteak... Of course, I have no clue what you're going on about. I've never mis-diagnosed a repair. :ninja: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caseyctsv Posted April 9, 2014 Author Report Share Posted April 9, 2014 If I had only told the mechanic "I think it is the air conditioning compressor but check it out - it is making a terrible grinding noise" all would have been good. I was cocky and said "replace the A/C compressor - it is bad". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
buelliganx1 Posted April 9, 2014 Report Share Posted April 9, 2014 Seems like a good mechanic would have made sure that it was a bad compressor but maybe he just came off of a bad "the customer is always right" experience and replaced it because he was concerned about telling the customer he was wrong. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caseyctsv Posted April 9, 2014 Author Report Share Posted April 9, 2014 It did not make the noise at start up - it had to warm up for you to hear it. I am guessing the bearings were going bad in the pulley and as it heated up the noise became noticable. I do not blame the mechanic in any way - it was all me in this case. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greg1647545532 Posted April 9, 2014 Report Share Posted April 9, 2014 I do this all the time; part of the problem of learning on Hondas where parts are all $20 and they're all 20+ years old and probably worn out anyway. The power steering on my wife's van was making an awful noise and after a visual inspection and some internet research I concluded it was the pump. I called a few shops for quotes to see if it was worth doing it myself, and finally the shop that I now use exclusively for everything refused to even give me a quote, saying, "I've never seen a pump fail on those this early, bring it in and I'll bet you it's something else." Sure enough, there was a leak that I had missed; cost me less than $100 for a new hose. I came to the same conclusion you did, and now I just go to that shop and tell them the symptoms rather than my half-assed guess about what the problem is. Humbling, it is. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SRTurbo04 Posted April 9, 2014 Report Share Posted April 9, 2014 Hey on the plus side u have a brand new ac compressor. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest GMoney Posted April 10, 2014 Report Share Posted April 10, 2014 Same issue with my current 1999 silverado. Previous owner said the AC compressor was bad when I purchased the truck. New tensioner and a belt and AC has been cold and quiet ever since, the tensioner was totally frozen in my case though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cordell Posted April 10, 2014 Report Share Posted April 10, 2014 Yeah those idlers and tensioners go bad quite often on fullsize trucks, my Camaro is starting to do that too, amazing to me since it doesn't get drivin a lot, and never in rain or snow. Sucks to have replaced the A/C compressor, but it wouldn't be far behind in the clucth making noise anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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