My friend's 96 impreza has had some nasty squeeling coming from the AC compressor area ever since he bought it a few months ago. The squealing is there whether the AC is on or off. We did think it was just a bad belt, but it really sounded more like a bad AC compressor pulley bearing. So we pulled the AC belt off and when we spun the AC pulley, we could clearly hear that it is definately the cause of the squealing, not the belt.
So, I'm guessing we have to replace the bearing inside the AC pulley? Does anyone know how to go about this? Does the entire AC compressor need to be taken apart? It would be nice to not have to discharge the system to do this.
thanks, jonathan