I have a 2003 Saturn Vue 2.2L manual transmission with 272k miles. I bought this car in late Feb this year. Drove it maybe a month, had it serviced, it drives perfectly.
The serpentine belt snapped March 25. I thought (from my uncle's assumption) the tensioner pulley seized. I changed it myself. Definitely was not the problem.
The AC Compressor pulley is the issue. My question is now, I don't have the vacuum or anything to clear the hoses and unit. Is it ABSOLUTELY necessary to drain the freon before taking out the old compressor? It's been sitting almost 2 months right now. I have no specialty tools. I've seen videos that say nothing about draining the lines beforehand and some that say I need a bunch of tools.
This car is my lifeline, I'm desperate to get this done. I don't have the money for a mechanic and no one to help me with it. Can I change the part and drive it safely until I can get the tools? Is it also necessary to recharge or can that wait too?
Is it ABSOLUTELY necessary to drain the freon before taking out the old compressor?
Unless it has service valves on the compressor like AMC used to install on their cars of course the system would need to be discharged to remove the compressor. (To my knowledge no one has provided those in ages.)
The following assumes that the compressor has locked up internally. If it's just the bearing in the pulley and the compressor is OK internally that's a much simpler case since there would be no internal debris.
When a compressor locks up it contaminates the entire AC system with metal debris. You also at a minimum need to replace the condenser, drier, and expansion valve, and flush out the rest of the system. (The expansion valve should keep debris out of the evaporator but if readily available and not difficult to access it's not a bad idea to replace that as well.) If you do not do this debris will likely destroy the replacement compressor in short order.
This job cannot be done without specialty tools and the knowledge to use them. To make the car driveable it may be possible to substitute a shorter fan belt to bypass the compressor. However if you want the AC to work there is no cheap or easy way to do it.
On the other hand, if you don't care about the AC and just want to be able to drive the car, if a shorter fan belt won't work I'd probably pick up a used compressor with a good pulley bearing and install it without connecting the clutch wiring. That way the compressor will not engage and it will just act as a pulley for the belt. (The cheapest replacement compressor on rockauto.com is nearly $160. A used one should be a lot cheaper. The pulley does not appear to be separately replaceable.) The refrigerant would still need to be discharged before removing the old compressor.
Thank you so much! I do have a brand new compressor already, as I was hoping to switch off the pulley. I've watched a few videos on how to do that, it's simple enough for me to follow. However, laughably so, the pulley spins and I was unable to get a good grip to loosen the bolt. I can't get a smaller belt, as this one already has a very short one. Maybe 12" at most.
I only need it drivable though so I think I'll keep messing with the bolt to get the pulley off. Everything is easy for me to follow and figure out, I just don't have access to the vacuum or refrigerant charger. Which is fine, I can deal with it until I can afford to get those.
Anyway, thank you! I've been desperately looking for this answer because nothing has been straight forward.
Worst case you can just install the new compressor but don't hook anything up, and make sure everything is tightly capped off to prevent damage in case you want to get the AC working in the future. You may be able to find a mobile mechanic that can discharge the refrigerant for you for not too much money.