Rattly Air conditioning balancer

[JP-Bolton]

Hi All, I'm new to the forum and wondered if anyone has encountered this issues before.

 

I have a 2013 Avensis 2.0 D4D.

 

On the air conditioning pulley, there is a disc that bolts to it which I have been advised is a 'balancer'.

 

The balancer is supposed to be solid to the pulley, however it rotates independently to around a 40deg area only, hence when the car is idling you can hear it clattering as it jumps around on its own.

My question is, is it a problem with the balancer that simply needs replacing or the compressor pulley, assuming the pulley is available separately from the compressor.

 

I'm assuming there is a pin on the balancer that locks it into the pulley, and that pin has failed.

 

If we were to delete it completely, what issues could arise, are the pulley bearings going to fail prematurely?

 

Now, to add, after the last service at my Toyota garage, I pulled away from the car park and it fell off completely into the engine bay almost immediately, which made a loud bang as you can imagine, they re attached it and it's been fine for a few weeks but just started doing this fault over the last few days.

 

I don't believe this is related to anything the garage has done, it's not their fault, just fortunate it happened while I was at the garage.

It's the disc on the back of the left pulley in the picture below.

[avetoy]

4 hours ago, JP-Bolton said:

The balancer is supposed to be solid to the pulley, however it rotates independently to around a 40deg area only, hence when the car is idling you can hear it clattering as it jumps around on its own.

There are some rubber "dampers" inside the pulley.

The symptoms you describe indicate that those dampers are worn out.

If you are DIY person, please watch this video that shows one (cheap) way to fix the problem.

I have made a similar repair, not with a bolt, but with adhesive sealant. It is more elastic...

[JP-Bolton]

Good old Ivan, didn’t know he’d done this.

 

This looks like the issue I’m having, thanks for pointing me in the right direction.