I have a 2002 Saturn SL that I purchased about a year ago, which has not had air conditioning since I've owned it. I purchased a refurbished compressor kit from ebay, and installed the 3 parts today. Refrigerant was added and the air conditioning actually worked.
The next time I drove the car, it was EXTREMELY slow to accelerate, especially while stopped and lower gears. The clutch seemed to be harder to press, and the RPM needle seemed to be "sticky" and slow to move.
I turned the air off, and the car worked normally.
It obviously seems I did something wrong, and looking to see if anyone has any possible solutions.

 

What three parts did you install?
Please be specific.

 

Apologies. The compressor and these other 2.

 

That looks like a rebuild kit not a remanufactured compressor.

I don't see a compressor clutch. Did you use the one still on the vehicle?

Did you add oil PAG prior to adding the refrigerant? The system needs to have oil mixed in with the refrigerant to keep the compressor lubricated. Otherwise it will be damaged internally.

Take the serpentine belt off and spin the AC compressor pulley by hand. Obviously with the engine not running. It should spin completely freely.

Try it and let us know what happens.
Also, do you have a full AC gauge set for reading the high side and low side pressures?

 

Correct, used the compressor clutch that was already on the vehicle.

The compressor came with oil in it, and it was checked and confirmed to be there. I also oiled the new gaskets that came with it.

I will take the belt off tomorrow morning and check that.

Thank you for your help!

 

So you took apart the compressor and rebuilt the internals? I'm confused as to how the entire kit was purchased but from what you said you only used three parts that came in the kit.

 

Kit was purchased on ebay. I just replaced those 3 items that came in the kit, along with replacing the gaskets.

 

You mean the o rings where the connections were made?

So it seems you got a fully remanufactured ryc compressor. PAG oil confirmed present. Refrigerant added. How much? There is a sticker across the front top Crossmember with the HVAC system capacity.

It's hard to determine what's going on without knowing how much refrigerant you added and without knowing the high and low side pressures with the AC both off and on.

You did not provide the results of how the compressor pulley spins. Please do so.

When an AC compressor self-destructs while in use, it often distributes shrapnel throughout the HVAC system. Things can get lodged in the lines, clog the condenser, clog the evaporator, clog pretty much anywhere and anything.

Anything that clogs the system acts as a Flow restriction to the refrigerant. There is a normal pressure differential between the high side and the low side for a properly functioning system. If there is a Flow restriction in the system, the system cannot operate as designed. This usually results in a dangerously high pressure differential when the compressor is trying to compress.

Since you don't know how the previous compressor died or if it wore out and there is a leak in the system, please have someone or yourself put a proper gauge set on the high and low side.

If the pressure on the high side is extremely high when the compressor is trying to run, that would put a huge load on the engine. This might explain why the car has no power to accelerate with the air on. A large part of the power generated by the engine is being used to try to turn that pulley.

As for the RPMs, drawing all that power away would keep the engine from revving up as it would normally, and this would change your shift points or shall I say delay them until the car actually reaches that RPM.

This is all speculation. If you are not comfortable doing the measurements with the gauges, take your vehicle to a trusted independent mechanic, explain what's going on, and have them diagnose it.
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Many people scream at their mechanics when their air conditioning stops working and they get an estimate for $1,400 to fix. What they don't realize is that is the cost of a new compressor, a new condenser because the old one is usually full of shrapnel, trying to flush the system of the rest of the shrapnel, replacing the receiver/dryer because it has shrapnel in it and hopefully not the evaporator because it's usually buried under the dash.

There's a good bit of Labor and a good bit of parts cost. And they have to get the lines flushed as well so that when they install the new parts, the system will last and we'll have no restrictions that could have been avoided.

That $1,400 goes towards giving you a reliable fully functioning HVAC cooling system. Non-mechanical people do not understand how complicated things can get. Most will not replace a compressor without replacing at minimum the condenser because the passages are so small, even if the compressor does not implode, they slowly get clogged with junk over the years and you lose efficiency as well as possibly start to restrict the system.

The system may also be retaining very high pressures even when the compressor is not running, so wear eye protection when working under the hood on this.

 

I agree, it sounds like the new expansion valve is plugged with debris. It is also possible that the dryer is now plugged also, I always take everything apart and clean out everything. If I cannot get a component clean enough I replace the part.