Hello all you mazda lovers. I have had my 2010 Mazda 3 for almost 4 year, no issues up to this point.

My A/C cut out last week when I was running around town, as it did that I smelled what smelled like the refrigerant, just a quick smell, Im not positive it was this as I work with concrete and do deocrtive staining and what not and some of the chemicals we use smell very similar, but any how, the ac cut out and wasnt blowing cold air. Being its almost 5 years old I thought the system might need a good recharge, so I went to autozone ant bought a recharge kit, and when I hooked it up to the system the gauge we into the red telling me that the system still has a charge. Scratching my head, I decided to look closer as the system to see if anything was amiss.

I get to looking and see that the clutch is missing off the compressor, luckily it was just in the splash guard along with the bolt, which as sheared off just below the head.

So I pulled the wheel off so I could get in there and see better. None of the splines we damaged. I then proceeded to put the clutch back inplace and kick on the ac just for kicks to see if the system was still functioning. It started blowing cold air just like before.

Weather is pretty crappy here today so Im not going to work on it, but Im going to search for a new bolt for it and get some easy-outs and pull the remaining bolt shaft out, but my question is, what could have caused this?

I know the compressor had to have momentarily seized up, but when I ran it things seemed to work just fine. Would it be advised to track down a new compressor and replace it anyway before it wrecks my whole ac system?

I know how to fix this problem but I want to know what caused it so I can avoid it and a very costly repair in the future.