This happened a couple of weeks ago. I'm hoping it hasn't happened to anyone else and it was just a fluke. I wasn't even using it and something went wrong at about 80 MPH. I thought someone blew a tire in front of me...smelled like burnt rubber. Then I saw black smoke coming in through the floor vents. I pulled off and threw open the hood and there was fire spitting out of the front of the compressor! I killed the engine and it went out. After limping home I had to cut the belt off so I could drive it again. Didn't do any damage to the car other than a mark on the underside of the hood...my father-in-law is an A/C guy and he thinks the clutch assembly went bad. Crummy way to end a Friday...

I must say that does stink but its happened to me before. At least it wasnt a serp. belt car. It usually is the bearings and it siezes up you might be able to work them free on a bench to save money. Its probably easy to find it is a standard compressor. JUST AS LONG AS IT ISN'T AFTER MARKET!!!!!!

Do you by any chance know the type of refrigerant that is/was in your system at the time this happened? Was it still R12, was it retrofitted to R134a, or was it retrofitted to something else?

Not retrofitted...the A/C is all original.