Well, from what i've heard, its a common problem.

I was driving behind a friend, and he was commenting on a noise the LeSabre was making. sounded like a bunch of chains. Didn't worry about it much, but kept an eye out, because I cannot hear those kind of noises.

Pulled into the shop to do work on my car. (canadian tire, i work in the shop). They asked me if I know my AC compressor clutch bearing is going out on me? They said it was making the most dreadfull noise, and i should re-route my belt to by-pass the compresor. Now, I, eagar to lear a bit about this stuff, inquired as to how to fix it. I got the nut in the middle out. Then I had to usea special puller to pull the clutch from the shaft. Then use snap-ring pliers to remove the snap rings from the pulley bearing. What a mess of metal shavings. There was alot of play in that pulley too!

Whacked the pulley off, and I can see that I could press the bearing out. So now, I gotta take it to a bearing shop, and see if I can get a new bearing on it. I should leave it alone, and put it back together. But I want to get the a/c working eventually, so i'm gonna fix it. I now know how to replace a bearing on the 3800 now! lol.

Had to buy a new belt that was shorter, and I had just bought a brand new belt a week ago!! Expensive too! Bummer..

Well yeah, that was my day. Put a new sway bar link on, found a penny sized hole in the subframe, and i am missing a metal bracket that holds a subframe donut in place. Its at the rear, so its not too bad. I might just replace the sub-frame al together anyways, its old and rusty,and a new one might feel stiffer.

One things for sure, new sway bar links feel MUCH better on a car!!

Good thing you got it changed when you did. If that had frozen up, you could have had a bit more damage. Some here have ended up with all kinds of carnage when a bearing froze up.

Are you planning on replacing the pulley and bearing on the A/C?

its not fun when that happens, my belt caught fire from it locking up.....

EEEWW I can just imagine what that must have smelled like. I'm going out to check my AC clutch right now.

i dunno, ask the people in the 3 lanes of traffic that i cut across to pull over. they caught a cloud of smoke

Listen for noises like chains rattling, or squeeking, etc. Take the belt off, and rotate the AC pulley by hand. Should be smooth, and not rough. There should also be no play on the pulley too.

Also, turning the AC on might decrease the noise, though, its doubtful.

I was gonna leave it alone for a while, but they didn't recommend it. They recommended I pull the belt off and bypass the compressor all together. I did just that. good thing the waterpunp can also run too. Guess some of em didn't come with a/c.

Get ready for water pump replacement every two years with the shorter belt. Thats what happened to me until I went to the yard and got another compressor and fixxed it right.
Repairing the bearing is not worth it IMO if you are going to use the AC. Chips could have already ruined the seal.