V70 T5 Rattle on start up

[hacksaw]

Guys, V70 T5, 2001, last few days engine has made a sound like a bag of spanners has been chucked into the engine when first starting up (Around 10 seconds?) and again when air con is on.

I've had my local garage collect this morning and they have advised me its the air con compressor / pump that has given up the ghost!
A quick look and they appear to be around £350 quid for a replacement, plus fitting, garage has quoted me £500 all in. They advised that they can disconnect and everything will still be OK, just no cold air. I'm fine with this but is this correct? Will everything else be OK with this simply disconnected?

If not, has anyone any ideas on where to get a second hand item? I don't fancy shelling out £500 on a car that's worth £1k tops.

Any help much appreciated.

[trickywoo]

Sounds right. I had a compressor fail with the exact same symptoms as you describe.

If it runs off a separate belt to the alternator i.e. has its own belt you can just cut this off to save time disconnecting.

I wouldn't bother with second hand as you have no idea how long it will last and it'll still be £150 in labour.

You can sometimes get them reconditioned but for a £1k car in this country is it worth it?

Disconnecting it won't cause any issues and your mpg may even go up.