Can it be driven??

spose you can drive, but your battery will soon go flat, as its run off the serpentine belt, the ACC belt. this in turn runs the altenator.

The pump? do you mean the compressor if so they are quite expensive but you can pick them up from scraper's now or even ebay etc.

Otherwise I would imagine recon about £500.00 try

I may be wrong though :) but I think thats how its set up

V6 may be different to a 4 cyl though

Thanks for the info ronny, Its a 1.8 V5 engine, and the part Iam talking about is located at the front left side of engine, down quite low to the left, looks like an electrical motor type thing, but not sure if this is the compressor or the pump. any ideas, thanks. Ps Iam in the UK.

Heres a pic, mark it in MS paint the part you mean

Snip

Its this part here, ronny.

If the belt is gone then I can't see why you can't drive it because its running off the main crank & there is nothing else on the same belt - the alternator, waterpump & power steering are all run off the main Serpantine belt by the looks of it. That said I'd call Audi and/or the guys at Wheelbase

Lots I should think - try GSF or the scrapper - see what Audi say as well - sometimes the difference between GSF parts & Audi parts is big, sometimes it isn't. Look for someone who will do it on an exchange basis for you as well.

It looks like it might be a pretty big job to get in there to replace the thing as well. Prepare for £2-300 of labour just to get in there & deal with it if you give it to a dealer. I would think its a complete Lock carrier removal job (either that or bank on spending your weekend with a Haynes manual for company!) They might be able to do it from underneath but somehow I doubt it.

If it does involve taking the front of the car apart then depending on mileage you might also think about doing a cambelt change & also changing the Serpantine belt while you are in there given how much time its going to take to get the thing apart.

I.

Thinking on this some more....

You may want to look into the root cause of this failure. The AC pump uses the AC fluid as a lubricant AFAIK - so no fluid & the pump siezes - so if your AC has leaked then this could well be the cause of the failure. If that is the case you'll need to find the leak before you replace the pump and fix that as well. Could be anywhere in the pipework or, worst case, the evaporators. This unit is buried in the heater box & to get to it you have to practically remove the entire dashboard. A £1300 job at a main dealer. (I am assuming here that the design is basically the same as my 96 A4 which has a very slow leak in the evaporators - I need to get the AC recharged about once every 18 months.) As one tech explained it to me - they build the floorpan, stick the heater box on it & then build the rest of the car around it!

If you are going to attempt to replace the AC pump yourself then come what may you should take the car to an AC place (or get a mobile guy to come to you) & get them to drain the AC system first. Then ask them to test it for leaks. They should be able to tell you how much fluid they were able to retrieve from it which will give a good indicator as to whether a leaking AC system is the root cause of your problem even before they test it. They test it by pumping it full of some kind of gas and then look for leaks with some kind of wierd gas detector.

You'd then need to get a mobile AC guy to come out & recharge the system for you before you start the engine again. I wouldn't drive the thing even a short distance with a new pump & no fluid.

In considering all the relevant costs bear in mind the warranty you will get on the repair if you have the work done by a dealer.

Bottom line, if your AC won't blow cold air then get your system tested for leaks or recharged before your pump siezes....!

HTH

I.

Actually, its not so bad. As long as the elctromagnetic clutch on the pulley hasn't seized too, if the aircon has no gas there's a pressure switch that stops the clutch engaging- presumably for the exact reason ian says- the lubricant is injected into the refrigerant gas. This can be handy as an indicator of a system all the gas has leaked out of- the clutch on the pump pulley never engages, so the pump never runs- the outer half of the pulley spins freely.

That said, if your aircon stops blowing cold it's good advice to get it checked, as some lubricant could get lost while there's still enough pressure to enable the clutch.

Thanks iain, I dont do hayes stuff, fu** that, i have just put it in to my local garage (not audi) sayes he will call me tomorrow with a diagnosis and a cost. watch this space......... %0)

Makes sense, but cam belt is ok. :0)

Cheers Dude..........

Thanks for the input chris, this all seems a bit above my head, but i think the unit is fuc**d as i think it has seized and that caused all the smoke from the engine and cos it was so hot it caused the belt to burn and then split. ;0(

I noticed when i was driving home the aircon started to rise and fall then went off completley. so i think at that point the unit had died on me. what do you think??

Yeah, it's knackered. What I meant was where another poster had said you perhaps shouldn't drive the car after a new pump was fitted, but not had the AC re-gassed, it would actually probably be OK, because the pump won't run unless the AC is pressurised. Your pump has had it. :-(, and they're not cheap :-(, and you'll need a new receiver/dryer, and a regass as well.