cstring

On a long trip this weekend my 97 escort got horrible gas mileage ~(22mph) for the first few tanks, so after the second fill up I decided to look and see what was wrong and I noticed that the belt tensioner was bouncing and there was a squeaking noise. I thought that maybe the tensioner pully was going out so I pulled it off and replaced it (the old one did have a slight wobble and grinding sound to it); but that didn't fix it. But then I noticed that the bouncing only happened when the a/c kicked on, so we just turned the a/c off for the next tank and our gas mileage went back to normal (32mph).
Is the A/C compressor going out? I was told that when the compressor goes bad it just freezes.
Thanks,
Craig

Bert

Did you check the other pulleys and accessories when you had the belt off. Also, how old is the belt? All of the compressors I've ever saw problems with were leaking or locked up. Has the freon been added to?

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Bert

cstring

I haven't checked all of the pulleys yet as I didn't jack up the car to access the bottom side. The belt is just a few months old, and earlier this year we added a few cans of freon... but now that you mention it it never came up to the right pressure levels... there maybe a leak somewhere.
Thank's for your input, I've got a few more things to check this week.
Craig