Hello,

I've owned my 2000 X-Terra 4X4 XE for 4 trouble free years. Recently I had the timing belt & water pump replaced at 105K miles.

Last week I notice some strange noises while running my AC at low rpms in lower gears (5-speed in residental housing on hills), but not at stop lights and it still cooled fine so I didn't worry about it. Then yesterday I started the car with the fan set to off. I always turn of AC off before starting; but when I turned the fan on after a minute of driving it blew REALLY cold air fast; like the AC Comp. had been running that whole time without the fan on... Ever since that day my AC runs no matter the fan setting or if the blue button is pressed.

I've been reading a lot of post about no cold air or fan, but nothing about the AC Comp always running. I haven't checked the fuse yet. I did check the hook-ups on the comp. and they look fine.

Thank you for any thought you may have.

This might help you with the noise issue. ( I need more time to review my info on the other symptoms you described.

Thanks for the diagnostic chart. The more I think about it the more I think the clutch on the compressor might be stuck. I’ve removed the fuse and it still blows cold, plus it hasn't made that noise the freeze. I haven’t worked on an AC unit before so I’m not sure how far I’ll get into the repair. I’ll work with it this Sunday and see what happens.

Thanks again!