I've read countless threads upon searching and see that this sound is very common. There was also a TSB for it on 2003 sedans. But even that didn't seem to solve the problem or it would come back in a few months.

My question to first gen owners, does the noisy A/C compressor cause it to fail or have you had a noisy compressor and never had to change it? Just curious if it's something I need to worry about and look into a fix before it goes out or if this is just the nature of the beast and it will last a long time and just live with the loud engine noise with A/C on and under 30mph speeds.

 

It's fine, don't worry.

 

I get the loud sound too on my '04.5x. I have a stillen gen 2 and berk HFCs and the sounds is very amplified in this setup. So much so that I refrain from using the AC. I was not aware this was actually a common problem. What's the fix??

 

you have a stillen gen 2 and berk HFCs what do you care about noise?

 

I am interested because the quality of the noise changes such that I get a lot of in cabin drone. Normally, with a/c off, there is virtually no drone and I just get a nice rumble in the interior.

 

Mine has done this since new. No change. Once in a while it sounds rough, other times not so rough.

Interior drone is not what I'd describe it as however. Sure it's not drone from the exhaust as the engine rpm/load changes?

 

Mine too

 

the compressor in my 03 sounds real loud sometimes and other times you cant hear anything. its been like that since I got it 3 years ago and ac is still ice cold

 

Cool thanks guys, good to know, I won't worry about it then unless it dies