Does the rig *ever* blow cold air, or do you get the blinkin' light and no-cold no matter what?
Hard to tell what troubleshooting your mechanic did. At the very least, I would have checked system pressures with the manifold gauges to get an idea of what the refrigerant pressures were like, and then checked the various pressure interlocks and operation of the magnetic clutch. If nothing else, pulling off the belt, manually engaging the clutch, and rotating the compressor by hand to listen and feel for obvious bearing problems would be well worth the time when you're looking at a nearly $400 part (something like $360 shipped from 1sttoyota...probably quite a bit more from your local stealership).
Not sure if you do any of your own work, but the FSM has a pretty decent troubleshooting section for the A/C. Some work requires specialized tools (manifold guage, vacuum pump -- both available relatively inexpensively @ Harbour Freight), but a lot of the relay and interlock checks don't require anything more than the voltmeter. And, if the compressor is running at all, you can get an awful lot of information just from looking at the sight glass on the dryer (driver's side, just to the right of the radiator). You can see the FSM for the A/C at http://www.camrystuff.com/manuals/Gen3/ac.pdf
Hard to tell what troubleshooting your mechanic did. At the very least, I would have checked system pressures with the manifold gauges to get an idea of what the refrigerant pressures were like, and then checked the various pressure interlocks and operation of the magnetic clutch. If nothing else, pulling off the belt, manually engaging the clutch, and rotating the compressor by hand to listen and feel for obvious bearing problems would be well worth the time when you're looking at a nearly $400 part (something like $360 shipped from 1sttoyota...probably quite a bit more from your local stealership).
Not sure if you do any of your own work, but the FSM has a pretty decent troubleshooting section for the A/C. Some work requires specialized tools (manifold guage, vacuum pump -- both available relatively inexpensively @ Harbour Freight), but a lot of the relay and interlock checks don't require anything more than the voltmeter. And, if the compressor is running at all, you can get an awful lot of information just from looking at the sight glass on the dryer (driver's side, just to the right of the radiator). You can see the FSM for the A/C at http://www.camrystuff.com/manuals/Gen3/ac.pdf
