muthiahmerchant

I want replace the existing belt on my 99 Infiniti i30 with the one that bypasses the air compressor. I have couple of questions in this regard.

1. If I bypass, will my heater still work.

2. Do i have to loosen the bolt on the idler pulley or just the one on top of the idler pulley needs to be loosened to replace the belt. The bolt is very tight

3. I have seen a youtube video where the person loosens the idler pulley bolt from bottom of the car. I can see it from the top, is it difficult to do it from the top.

mrglynis

1. Yes it will still work.
2.Yes, you have to loosen the bolt on the idler pulley first, and then the one on top.
3. I did it from the top. I dont think it really matters. Which ever is easiest.

Noruthun

I have read in couple of threads that people are bypassing the Air Compressor? Why is that? What are the benefits of doing that? I am doing a water pump replacement and i will replace the belts at the same time.

WesCTR

iTrader: (2)

less mass the engine has to move. it gets too humid here in the summer for me to consider going without ac.

mrglynis

99% of people bypass the AC compressor, because the bearing is wearing out. If it seizes, it will snap the belt. So to save a headache, they bypass the compressor. Usually temporarily, until they can replace either the bearing or the whole compressor.

muthiahmerchant

finished replacing the belt. Thanks for all the inputs and help from other posts.

Used the following belt from napa to bypass ac 25-060355

My idler pulley had gone bad and took it to the VAtire to replace it under warranty. And told them to put this belt on. When i went to pick up the car, those fxxxers said the belt did not fit, my ***. Funny thing is the idler pully nut was not tightened at all. I could turn it with bare hands. I am going to blast them this weekend, in front of hopefully lot of other customers.

I am bypassing because the bearing has gone bad and making a very horrible noise and causes poor acceleration. I don't commute that much so even in summer, I can live without AC. Replacing the AC parts is $400 and evac, recharge is going to cost another $150, If i replace the unit by myself.

For anyone planning to do this or just replace the belt, raise the car on a ramp, no need to remove the tire. Remove the engine splash guard and the splash guard behind the passenger tire. Gives you lot of room to work with. Not so easy from the top. The idler pulley can be loosened all the way to the top. This gives you lot of room to put the belts on. I did not realize it and struggled to put the belt. Then by trial and error figured out that the idler pulley can be raised a lot more than what I had.

In all took about an hour and a half. No more noise. pick up is much better