Help Identifying Mysterious Wire - Suspect Compressor Activation Wire

[ylwjacket]

Last week, something happened in the engine bay, but the result was a broken serpentine belt, frozen tensioner, broken pulley, and blown up radiator.

Not sure of the original failure, but anyways, it's been a fun week dealing with it.

When it happened, it was towed to Pep Boys (only thing nearby where it happened). The guys there did everything but the radiator. The guy also told me he got the old belt out of the other pulleys, etc.

I replaced the radiator tonight, and noticed not all of the old belt was out. As I was looking at and removing some more of it, I also noticed a broken wire on the front of what I believe is the a/c compressor. It is clipped down in the top, and connects on the front into a yellowish plastic thing right behind the belt.

I don't know if Pep Boys did it, I did it (don't think it was me), or it got whacked in the "event". Now, I am trying to figure a few things out:

- what exactly is this wire
- does it require replacement of the compressor, or is there a way to replace just the wire
- will a splice work, at least for awhile, until I recover financially from the $2.5k I've dumped into this car in the past couple of months.

I've attached a few pics so you can see the 2 ends of the wire, and a piece of belt yet to be removed.

Thanks much.

[ylwjacket]

well, pics didn't work from onedrive. I'll have to find another way to post them.

[ylwjacket]

[ylwjacket]

well, thinking it's the activation wire. Is there any chance it's replaceable, or is a whole new unit required?

thanks

[jcp240z]

It is the clutch activation. I have not seen it as an individual part. It does not look like there is enough there to do a temporary fix

[upallnight]

That's the wire for the coil for the ac compressor clutch. You can just replace the clutch coil since the coil comes with that wire. If you have a good set of snap ring pliers you can perhaps replace the coil with the compressor still in the car. If not you will need to bring it in, have the refrigerant removed and remove the compressor from the engine.

A job like this shouldn't be more than 500, so you will be up to $3k on repair for the X.

[ylwjacket]

when you say job like this - do you mean replacing just the coil?

I don't have any snap ring pliers, so I could get what I needed, if this repair is feasible.

thanks much

[upallnight]

Here's a video on replacing the ac clutch coil with the compressor still in the car. Difficulty will depend on access to the compressor and any interference from other parts or the sub frame.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVQxRXUUUb4

[upallnight]

Looks like it is probably cheaper or easier to just replace the entire compressor.

https://www.amazon.com/UAC-CO-29018C...lutch+coil+bmw

[ylwjacket]

That's what I'm thinking too. Thanks much.