lose A/C belt

[rocketman]

Anybody ever disabled their A/C to gain mpg? The A/C compressor crapped-out on our '95 Civic, and we never used it anyway . . . thinking about eliminating the belt to the compressor. Anybody ever done this? Will it increase my mpg enough to matter? Rocketman

[YK86]

Did the bearing die in the compressor? Or is it something else that killed the compressor?

If it's dead as in doesn't work and the bearing/pulley is fine, it won't make much of a difference. If you've spun the pulley by hand before with the AC off, you'll notice there is almost no drag. Only time it puts a load on the engine is when the AC is on and the compressor clutch is engaged.

[gp02a0083]

Did the bearing die in the compressor? Or is it something else that killed the compressor?

If it's dead as in doesn't work and the bearing/pulley is fine, it won't make much of a difference. If you've spun the pulley by hand before with the AC off, you'll notice there is almost no drag. Only time it puts a load on the engine is when the AC is on and the compressor clutch is engaged.

yupp, the magnetic clutch is always disengaged until you put the A/c on. I agree with YK86, even with a belt and the A/c off it shouldn't have a significant amount of drag/friction to cause a major loss.

you would expect to see a little bit of an improvement if you ditched the power steering and converted the water pump to electric ( i don't even know if that is an option or the A20's)

[lostforawhile]

with the power to the compressor off it's nothing but an idler pulley, not significant enough to create any drag on the engine, I've been following some of this hyper miler forums, and even something like the alternator when it's disconnected has so little drag free wheeling, that it's almost unnoticeable on the fuel mileage. If it has no effect, the free spinning disengaged magnetic clutch on the AC compressor won't

[Dr_Snooz]

Removing the weight of the compressor and all associated AC components will improve your mileage.