We had bought the van 6 months prior to this happening. We were going over to pick up a washer and dryer and got 3 blocks from our home at a traffic light and the van died. Started it back up and it was running, but sounded like it was really laboring to move/run. Limped it back to the house and shut it off. Got under the hood and smelled something burning. Checked around and couldn't figure out what it was at first. Let it cool off and restarted. Ran for about the first 10 seconds ok and then it started acting up again. Gave it more gas to keep it running and that is when the smoke started rolling. Shut it off and found that the clutch on the A/C unit had locked up causing the alternator belt to be dragged across it and the electrical connector going to the A/C unit was starting to melt.

I have been working on cars for the last 20 years so I figured I'd fix it myself until...seems this has been happening a lot to other people according to the auto parts store. Since the electrical part melted I need a new compressor at $650. Well, as you can figure I said, we can go without air. But how? The van runs like crap because it's locked up. Well luckily, the clutch is wired to be normally open, so when you first start it, the clutch in the AC is disengaged. So I pulled the fuse for the AC under the dash, thinking that would fix it. GUESS AGAIN...The power mirrors are on the same fuse, granted I could live with that, but I am thinking by now what genius put those on the same circuit?? Anyway, I then put the fuse back in with the van off and instead pulled the relay for the AC and viola.. now I have power mirrors again and now the motor runs fine. I hope this helps anyone else that has this issue.