The A/C in my 98 Altima died. The charge seems to be fine. Any ideas on what to look for. There are no blown fuses that I can find under the dash or hood. If I jump the contacts on the A/C relay under the hood the compressor kicks in and there is cold air. If I leave the jumper in after a few minutes the compressor seems to lock up and the drive belt starts smoking. It's A/C season and I could sure use some ideas.

 

Your compressor is bad, either the compressor bearings or the clutch is bad.

Its a 340.00 part if you get one from AutoZone, then you have to change some other part as well when you replace the compressor and then have it charged.

If the compressor is fine and it’s just the clutches that are bad unfortunately you can’t just replace the clutches like on older cars it’s a one-part thing. Dealing with the same issue on my 99 Sentra Gxe Limited is how I know

Donnie

 

I would say that you need a new compressor. I do not have an electrical drawing, but if it only works when you jumper the connections you are most liklley bypassing a current overload switch that is seeing a locked compressor rotor.