A/C compressor clutch issues

pajeepman said:

2000 XJ 105,000 miles. A/C system has a leak, guessing it the evaporator. I think the compressors clutch is "going south" also. I have a junkyard compressor pulled from a low milage mint condition 2001 XJ c4c victim. I am gonna put the compressor in soon. Horrible squeal from under the hood for about 1 second if A/C is turned off, lasts much longer with it on when Jeep is first started. Doesn't squeal from a stop with A/C off but it does with A/C on until around 2200rpms. A/C doesn't also work either, can be driving down the road and it will just stop working for no apparent reason. I'm gonna get a belt tension gauge tomorrow from Napa, could be the squealing problem.

Not a good sign, the clutch is in very bad shape when it starts doing this.

Issue I have/wondering about. Girlfriend is taking it to Bar Harbor, Maine next weekend. It's about a 12 hour drive. It will probably only be used on the ride up and back, not while in Maine for 7 days.

I think the clutch is going bad on the compressor, it didn't work when hooked right to the battery. It did the next day though. Pressure wasn't low in the system at the time. If she was running the A/C and the clutch flat out died, would it lock up and destroy the belt and leave her stranded? What's the worst case scenerio that could happen with a bad A/C clutch. Really didn't want to replace the compressor until I got a new evap and Receiver Drier / Accumulator.
I treid doning a search but didn't find anything. TIA

I would say very likely. Your clutch is failing badly when it is freezing up (engaging) even when the power is off.

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