Air Conditioner Rattling, No Cold Air

[AnotherES300owner]

The A/C on my 1998 ES 300 stopped working today. The fan blows warm air. The green light is steady. I think I hear a rattling-like sound when I turn it on. I'm not sure where the condensor is but the rattle comes from something with a belt near the left front. We had the a/c recharged and other work done on it a year or 2 ago. Any suggestions?

UPDATE: Needed the a/c fixed and didn't have time to tinker so took it to mechanic. He said it was a dirty relay, cleaned it and said it worked. This morning it was OK for an hour but then died again this afternoon. Now the a/c light is blinking. After reading the posts about replacing the relay, I didn't want to waste $70 on spec, so I tried swapping the MG CLT relay with another one next to it that had the same part number. I know that one works because when I pulled it out, the car died. After swapping them, the car ran fine but the a/c still doesn't work and the light is still working. So I guess it's not the relay.

I looked at the clutch and belt as suggested by lenore. It looks like it's always running. Is that possible? Maybe I'm looking at the wrong thing? Ideas of where to go next? (besides back to the mechanic) - Thx

[lenore]

You may have a bad AC pump clutch. The clutch can fail.

[AnotherES300owner]

Is there any way to test the clutch without removing the pump?

[lenore]

while the engine is running watch the compressor, the clutch is the part the fan belt goes around. When the air conditioner cyles the clutch should be turning, when off it sits stationary. If you see a lot of rattling either the clutch is going bad or the bearings are bad that the clutch rides on.