AC Compressor

When I went to leave work today I noticed a noise coming from the engine bay. Thought it might be the cold so I drove easy going home and when turned down the radio to park it sounded the same but more pronounced. It's kind of a dry seer seer seer seer seer sound. Sounds like its coming from the ac compressor. Sounds like it may be from the inside (in which case I would need a new compressor) but might be the bearing. Not sure. Tomorrow afternoon I'm going to cut off the old belt and put a new one on but before I put it on I'll play with the compressor a little bit.

Could this happen from having an empty ac system? When I replaced my condenser after the accident I just cracked the line and let all the gas escape. This is my main question about this. If the compressor is what's bad, how much do you think it would cost me to have someone vacuum and fill the ac system?

Hopefully its the bearing but if its not and is in fact the compressor, this shouldn't be too difficult right? Don't need to worry about freon in the system or pressure as I took care of that already lol.

If there is no freon in the system the clutch will not engage which means the only possible failure would be the pulley bearing if your sure that is the source of the noise.
You can put a new clutch assembly on without replacing the whole compressor.
If the system was opened then resealed I would recommend flushing the system before filling it. Moisture in the air will be removed when it boils off under vacuum but the dirt that came in with it will not.
An Evac and recharge is usually about $100 as for the flush.. That depends on the method. I would also recommend replacing the receiver drier.

I forgot about the clutch and being able to replace it without doing the whole thing. Hopefully thats what the problem is since the compressor itself is $250 from local Oreillys. (Would go rockauto but oreillys has one in stock). I'm fairly certain that's where its coming from but I'll know more tomorrow. Too dark and cold now to go screw with it.

Innards should be clean as they were only open for a few minutes at the most in a closed garage. Probably a little bit of moisture from the air in there but other than that should be pretty clean.

$100 isn't bad I can handle that. Just gotta find somebody who can do it for me.

If the compressor is what's bad I'm going to pull it and throw a bypass pulley on there and say screw it lol. Don't hardly ever use it in the summer anyways, just roll down the windows

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vVve2tndxG8Picked up an a/c bypass belt today and the Damn things too short. Found this out in the parking lot. Went back in and fit a stock replacement and bypass pulley. Didn't pot it on as it was getting dark and cold out again. Took this video when I got home tho.

Listened to the compressor with a nice long flathead screwdriver at work this morning. Definitely the compressor. I think the clutch might be screwed and locked in cuz it doesn't change anything whether the air is on or off. Might be locked in. Along with that it leaked out the bottom so pretty sure it's out or damn near. Got all the parts to fix it just need to get home with it after work without it loving up and shearing the belt. Wouldn't be a big deal if I didn't have to go 30 miles lol