Hey folks.. trying to relieve a headache:

96 3.8 V6 Camaro
Rattles incessantly when idling (for the past couple of weeks), and when I popped the hood today to try and figure out when it was coming from, I noticed a hose (A/C?) vibrating. When I touched it, the rattle got quieter. When I moved it a little, the rattling stopped entirely.
The hose in question (from the front) goes from the right of the battery back to the left of the belts.

The entirely belt system appears to be shaking in and of itself.

I had my plugs and wires replaced about a month ago, fuel system was cleaned at the same time. Any ideas as to where to start? (Please dumb it down for me a bit, as I'm not all that savvy.. )

 

Look on the inner fender well to see if the bolt securing the air conditioning hoses is screwed into the fender or if it has come loose. Should be about 1/2 way back on the side of the inner fender. Also, check the spring loaded tensioner and pullys to make sure you don't have a bearing going bad on the pullys or the spring getting weak on the tensioner.

 

Thanks for the tip.. unfortunately, when I got the car up on the ramps today, and traced the a/c hose to the front of the car, I discovered that the metal tube at the end of the hose had snapped.. guess I'm gonna have to take it in to the shop.

 

Update: After researching the parts (need to replace the condenser) cost and figuring in average labor costs, I have one question. When the pipe snapped, did it discharge my a/c system? If I can save a couple hundred in labor, I'd be silly not to..

 

odds are if a line snapped than the freon leaked out but its possible it didnt are you planning on maybe just eliminating the ac

 

That would be my last resort. Ideally, I want to simply replace the condenser myself, and have the system recharged. I'm leaning more towards believing that the system is empty, as I can't feel any temp difference between running the a/c and simply setting the air temp as low as possible.

Doing it myself would save me about $240, which kind of appeals to me..