A/C compressor problem?

[nbf6165]

Needing some opinions. '03 Pathfinder, Automatic, 173,000 miles

Turned the a/c on the other day and I get no cold air and I hear a chirping/squealing "belt" noise. Stopped in at my mechanics this morning for him to look at it. The bolt on the ac clutch appears loose, you can see a small gap between the bolt and the clutch surface. He tries to tighten it and it just continually spins, never tightens.
When you vehicle is running and you turn the ac on, everything looks to be working properly, the belt turns, the clutch spins, BUT the little bolt on the front turns and spins erratically at different speeds.
He said only thing he can think of is that the "shaft" that the bolt screws into is broken, therefore spinning freely.

Long story short, it appears I need a new compressor to the tune of $800 parts and labor.

Thoughts?

[DAiNiUS]

My compressor was making a noise similar to what you're describing, and it eventually failed. I replaced the compressor and everything was fine afterwards. $800 sounds like too much. I bought a remanufactured compressor from ebay for $200+40 for shipping to Canada. It cost me $60 to get it installed, as it's easily accessible and pretty straight forward. Finally, I paid another $150 to do a leak check and refrigerant recharge to bring it to a total of $450. If you live in the states I'm sure that the same could be done for $350-400.