The bearings appear to be shot on the air con compressor (intermittent metalic shrieking noise) on our 2006 Skoda Fabia Mk1 1.2 64.

We have not used the aircon for the last 8 years because of the expense of replacing leaky seals.

 

Our mechanic friend suggests bypassing the air con compressor / removing it and the guide pulley above using the shorter belt that is designed for the non air-con version.

I just spoke to a motor factor who said that would not work.

Is he right because I have doubts looking at the diagrams it seems possible ?

 

Are you certain that it isn't the belt tensioner pulley that's screeching?

More common, I think.

 

Belt for non-A/C version of your engine is 21.8 x 1453mm long.

No reason it shouldn't work if routed correctly. 

 

Diagrams can be over-generic and confusing. 

Edited 14 June, 20241 yr by Breezy_Pete

Should be this, I think:

 

The noise appeared to be coming from lower down. After relaxing the belt, spinning the pulley on the air con unit by hand there is some noise from there.

As we don't use the defunct aircon anyway is there any downside other than the cost of the replacement belt in trying this.
The motor factor guy was full of horror stories of different size pulleys etc but as you point out - from the diagram it just seems like rerouting to miss out 2 pulleys with a shorter belt

12 minutes ago, Mkcheznous said:

The motor factor guy was full of horror stories of different size pulleys etc.

 

That's because he's a moron, the pulleys are sized to allow the different driven units to run at different speeds, simply removing the Aircon doesn't change the speed that the belt is running at since that's dictated by the crank pulley.

I meant to come back and say thanks for the advice on this.

Fitted the non aircon belt with no issues 6 weeks ago