My car's AC was giving slight noise, i ignored it and after some days, the noise increased. It was like a loud rattling sound whenever compressor clutch engaged and it went away afterwards. I went to mechanic and it was diagnosed that the place where bearing sits (he called it GATTA, what is its real name? shaft? bearing seat?) has play so whole compressor has to be replaced. To my understanding, a bad bearing turned into very bad bearing and it started biting on to the GATTA and permanently damaged it. It cannot be fixed right?
Btw i went for a kabli compressor and it also some times give almost same sound that previous AC used to give in early stages. Mechanic said that come back and i will change it as he gave compressor warranty but hez gonna charge me for labour and gas. Thing is that how to make sure compressor is good before installation? because last time i myself also checked if pulley was moving freely without any sound and it seemed fine, there was no play either.... I guess one can only say for sure when it is installed because that is the time when things get loaded. Otherwise moving freely, its perfectly fine. Any advice?