Bad a/c clutch?

:confused: Had a problem with a/c yesterday on 2001 w/DOHC. Working fine, then started blowing warm air (very hot day), looked under hood and saw smoke coming from a/c clutch. Smoke is bad. Turned a/c off, later turned it on and it worked fine, blew 40 degree air out of dash. LAter in drive I smelled the now familiar odor and saw smoke coming from clutch again. Question is, could there be a problem with the compressor? Looking back, this year I noticed a sound like a turbo when accelerating with the a/c on. As the car had NO TURBO! was that the clutch bearing going? As the problem was intermittent, and the a/c worked great in between, I'm thinking clutch not compressor.

Thanks, Bob

If there is no smoke when the a/c is not on, then it is most likely not the clutch bearing ( clutch is always spinning ). If it only happens with the A/C on , then the compressor is most likely the issue. You can take the belt off and see if the compressor clutch moves freely by hand. If so, the compressor bearings are going.