All right this is the deal. First off, my ac clutch makes a ratteling sound and is always engaging/disengaging. Then my alternater is not putting enough charge back in the system, so i am draining my battery. Also she overheats a little bit in city traffic, and last but not least my power steering pump is whinning. This all happened at once. What the hell is going on. My guess is that my ac clutch is bad and has created a bunch of drag on all the other parts. Causing my alternator not to charge full, my power steering pump to whine and my water pump to not pump as much water. Am I a retard or does this sound plauseable? Please help I am poor and I cant just replace everthing.

 

the ac clutch is supposed to engage/disengage. That is its job.
The rattleing noise is not right. Might replace the clutch, or take the belt off until you can fix the problem. Might be hard if you have a serptine belt.

The power steering pump sound like it is going out. One thing you can do is that the return line off the pump.(the one with a hose clamp holsing the hose on the unit.) Put the hose into a bottle(a big one) and start the engine, have someone pour new fresh fluid into the top of the pump. You should see old fluid comming out, when you see fresh fluid, stop and return the hose to the pump. Some times you can prolong the pump by doing this. If the noise is still there, the pump is too far gone. Replace it.

About the overheating, check the air dam under the car, make sure it is there. It reflects air into the radiatior. Also check the caps ability to maintain pressure.

The idle could be set to low for the alt. to put out enough juice. Make sure it is right. Take the vehicle down to a local autoparts store, they can test the system.


Goog luck......

 

The idle is not set to low, the airdam is on(I said it overheats on city, air dam is almost mainly highway conditions), and should the ac clutch be constantly engaging/disengaging? I mean it goes on for a minute, it goes off for a minute, back and forth back and forth. That does not seem right, any way like you said the ratteling noise isn't right either. I think theres more going on here then low idle and a bad radiator cap. I think that my car which has just turned over to 100,000 miles took a crap. How can all the major belt drive components just crap at once? Thats why i think it all comes down to the ac clutch, the one thing That I am positive needs changing. Its a clutch right? Maybe its clutching, thusly slowing everything else down. Does this make sence to any one?

 

you can unplug the connector on the front of the clutch this will stop it. if it is cycling that much it is mostlikely low on it's charge

if it is noisy some times you can get a few thousand or more miles out of them by prying out on the clutch (the spring steel gets week after awhile and out of shape. I am sure you are hearing it drag (kinda a ring/scrap noise)

check your fluid levels as I hope you already have, how does the coolant look? if you have the cap off is the coolant flow? are the fans turning on?

the alt might have just took a dump. fix the a/c noise and unplug that first then start with the overheating

 

Maybe a stupid question here.... but what condition are your belts in?