I own a 2001 Toyota Echo. When I turned on the air conditioner, the fan would run, but there was no cooling. I took it to the Toyota dealer for repair, and the problem was a bad compressor. The compressor was repaired and the a/c worked. Twelve days later, the a/c would not cool. I took it back to the dealer, and the problem was “Found clutch melted to AC compressor.” Fortunately, the repair was still under warranty, so there was no extra charge. I had never heard of the “magnetic clutch assembly” melting itself to the AC compressor.
It can happen if the mag clutch slips constantly. The mating surfaces are machined aluminum, so persistent slipping can build enough heat to melt the aluminum enough. A bad bearing on the pulley can cause that as well.
I’m kind of surprised a genuine Toyota compressor would fail so fast . . . I believe Denso is the manufacturer of the part?
Was the belt properly tensioned?
Did the new compressor come with the clutch already installed and gapped?
How they come varies, tech may have reused the old one ir not set the correct air gap. It does happen on occasion.
Maybe there’s a possibility the dealer used a reman compressor from a local parts house? Rare for a dealer but it does happen.
What if the air gap was not correct (say too wide) and the system has abnormally high pressure on the high side? That could easily lead to slipping and frying the works.
No matter what compressor was used and no matter who provided it one would think the mechanic should check this as a formality before installing it. This would be especially true of a reman compressor.
One also wonders about the drier, whether the system was flushed, etc, etc.
We had a botched installation on an AC compressor. It was a new Taurus that sat on the lot too long. The dealer replaced the seals, but then the AC clutch squealed. It took them several times and always got it wrong. After I filed for a lemon law car replacement, they finally just replaced the entire compressor. It worked right after that.