02. Cold a/c works but as motor warms up, compressor kicks off and light on button blinks. This started several years ago and simple reset button, worked as should. Now once it flashes it wont reset until everything is cooled down. . put gauges on and seemed normal sometime back. Its like there is a faulty thermostat that may be issue. Need advise. its 90 here. Don
Best advice is to search through some threads here for the method to make the A/C light blink out the trouble code(s) for you. It's easy and requires no tools. Otherwise we're just guessing at the problem. I'm trying to picture how a slow refrigerant leak would produce the symptoms you describe, and it isn't clear to me. It is not at all unlikely that a 14-year-old Gen 1, if it has never had the compressor clutch shims changed, may be far out of spec by now on clutch plate travel. It is supposed to be between 0.35 and 0.65 mm. Wear makes the travel larger. When mine started having noticeable symptoms, I measured it at 1.3 something, if I recall correctly, easily double the maximum end of the range. What happened under those conditions was that the resting position of the plate was far enough away from the clutch magnet that it would not reliably pull in. I have video of me sending 12 volts to the magnet and the plate just leaning slightly on one side, but not pulling in, but if I gave it a slight nudge with my hand, than CLACK it pulled in. Or if I increased the voltage slightly. Clearly it was just right at the borderline. That is a problem that could show a heat dependent behavior, since the clutch magnet is a wire coil and resistance generally increases with temperature, tending to weaken the magnetic field. If it is at the borderline, it may engage more reliably when cool. If that turns out to be your problem (shown by a code 22 from the computer, or confirmed by you measuring the clutch travel) it's a very easy fix. The shim kit is about a buck from the Toyota dealer, and you can do the work in about ten minutes. A search should find several threads here about it. -Chap
