Hey guys. New to forums. I used to be a member here years ago, but the email i used back then is now long gone. :eeek:
Anyways, our Magna is making a horrendous noise when the aircon switch is on. So when the fan is running without the aircon switch on, all is well. As soon as you press the aircon button, this monstrous grinding noise starts tearing you ear drums apart.
Aircon pulley or the assembly more than likely stuffed ?
The cars so far done 130k and knock on wood, has never given us a single bit of issue.
How tough is it to replace something like that, and what sort of wallet damage am i looking at. Cheers.

Need to purge air on and replace compressor.

You have a choice of new or used, other risk is that if the unit is grinding of bits of metal in the system. If is only a bearing you should be fine as these are sealed externally after the gas seal

A proper aircon place will have a "sniffer" which they can use to pinpoint exactly where any leak is (might take a few hours). This should show if there's a leak from the compressor, meaning it's stuffed. Place I went to cost $80ish to do this test.
If the compressor's not leaking, and the sound's coming from it, then maybe it can be fixed relatively cheaply.

Brand new compressor will be $700+, and a proper fitting also needs other parts of the system checked, flushed etc, then regas. I was quoted about $1200 including compressor, but he was happy to use a provided compressor, just wouldn't guarantee it.

Either way, any work on the compressor will need a degas and regas at the very least.