Yesterday I get in the car and turn the AC on. Very loud squealing noise. It went away but the AC does not blow cold air.

When the AC is completely off, there is a ticking noise. Under the hood, the belt is turning and so is the pulley on the end of the compressor. But it seems like the pulley is slipping a bit. It looks like the belt is not skipping, but the pulley stops spinning every couple seconds and has to "re-catch" it looks like.

When I turn the AC on, there is no noise and the pulley seems to be spinning fine. It does look like the nut in the center is "wobbling" a slight bit.

Any ideas?

 

So, there's a noise with A/C on and it goes away, but at no point blows cold air?

When the AC is completely off there's still a different noise?

When the pulley stops, does the belt stop with it?

You saw a wobbling nut, did you tighten it immediately? If not, you are a strong willed individual.

Should be far easier to help with these clarifications.

 

No. The noise I heard when the AC was on was just that one time. There is NO noise when the AC is on.

When AC is OFF, that's when I hear the ticking.

When the pulley stops, it doesn't stop completely. Just looks like it slips up a bit, slows down, then spins regular speed. Repeat this cycle over and over.

I wouldn't say the nut wobbles. It's hard to explain.

I can try to get a couple seconds of video.

 

Sounds like an issue with the compressor clutch