Is my A/C compressor about to go boom? + Have you done a A/C delete?

The 2016-2021 Civic generation is plagued by terrible A/C relability stats. The subcontractors that built the seals made them not to bueno - so they tend to swell under use and leak out the freon. Honda has extended the warranty on the condensor and the compresser shaft seal to 10 years for these problems. 

My bumper-to-bumper warranty ended last year. As of last week, I am now greeted by a rythmic whirring sound when my compressor is engaged. Should I wait for it to seize up - or be preemptive with repairs? The A/C still works fine - I have a suspicion its just the pulley.

Also I am curious - anyone done a A/C delete on a HPDE car? I don't think I'd survive without A/C - I am weak 

Why not just unplug the clutch until you can make repairs?

Less chance of catastrophic failure that way.

Or see if you can run the belt from a non-ac car instead.

Well, I figured i'd wait for it to seize and just replace the entire compressor. However then it might grenade and then take out a lot more as you mentioned..... 

The compressor clutch assembly is $300 CAD, while an entire revised compressor is $1200. With the labour and recharge involved I might as well just pay for an entire new compressor. 

No. Not what I said.

Remove the electrical connection from the ac compressor clutch so it just freewheels.

Then you can fix things properly when you have the budget instead of making the situation worse.

Noted. 

A bit busy the next few weeks, I'll report back after a dealer visit

If you wait for it to explode, you'll send fragments of shaved metal all through the system.  You can't really purge it out with flush fluid, so you'll be on borrowed time with the new compressor as well.

As it is now, you probably have minimal shavings.  If you continue to run it, it will just be a downhill spiral.

The only way to get the shavings out is to pull the evap and condenser and drier, flush the lines like a madman, then put a new evap, condenser, and drier (which you would anyway).  Right now you're looking at a $250 compressor/drier/valve kit.  If you keep running it, you might be looking at $3000 for a whole new system.

Update: got it to the dealer. The A/C shaft seal was leaking and was covered under the extended warranty Honda provides. I assume the noise was the Freon pushing its way out. 

The dealer removed the compressor, then disassembled the pulley and seal, and inspected the compressor. They put it back together with an updated shaft seal. Back to being cool for now!