I have a 7 year old 5 ton York A/C unit. It has an extremely loud compressor type sound coming from it constantly. I had a Tech come out and look at it yesterday and he said that everything is fine with it. It still is in good shape cooling, etc. But that the valves on the compressor are causing this noise. He mentioned that it will need to be replaced but not until it stops working (could be 1 day or 5 years). I'm very surprised he didn't try to sell me a replacement unit. I asked him what my options were and he mentioned that I could replace the just the compressor ($1800 ish) but not advisable since it will only have 1 year warranty and it is still the R22. If I was to replace the whole unit outside (i would have to go with R 410 and that would require me to replace my coil as well. (He recommended a Lennonx ACX 5 Ton - $5000).

I really don't want to spend $5k just because of a noise - but I have to do something. The unit is way to loud it can be heard 4 houses away. Do I have other options or just replace the compressor for the $1800 - Is that a reasonable price (Dallas area).