My condolonces, I think that bimmer is giving you a lot of hell. Hey, I own two of them, my wife's amd my project car. My opinion is that modern bimmers are stylish, good engine, good mechanical design, but the rest is trash. The electronic gadgets doesn't mean nothing and there is a lot of plastic there.
I fixed the starter on my wife's car last week and was surprised on what a piece of garbage that starter is. Locally I could find the parts and put it together cheaply otherwise would have have to pay $200 for a remanufactured one.
So, live in style but pay the pennalties..!
The compressor is available as a remanufactured one at Auto Zone, Pep Boys, or othe r parts chain at $200.

definetly the compressor died. smells burned, makes a terrible , but TERRIBLE noise when on OR OFF .. no matter .
i have no leaks at all the ac always worked perfectly. i'll just need to change the compressor, maybe some valves and o rings and recharge it. where is a good place to find one? remanufactured , new, used .. whatever . but working ... and cheap also :-)
Thanks for the info guys ! Help a south florida resident on the summer time with no almost no AC ...