[earthkin]

Sounds like you are right about the bearing just wearing out. My daughter had complained about the noise, which I thought was the A/C compressor. I had her take it into a shop near where she goes to college, and they said the couldn't hear the noise! Maybe too much time on the firing range, because it was pretty obvious to me. Then about a week later, she drove it home and the A/C stopped working (that was when the bearing disintegrated, I'm sure). Darn mech! It would have been pretty easy to fix if they'd bothered to investigate.

I told her to never take it back there. Fortunately, all they actually did was an oil change, and it hasn't leaked out yet (hopefully they didn't strip the plug bolt!).