[s-cars] A/C Cycling on/off...

[Andrew B]

The other day I was driving my 95.5 S6A from Boston to CT, and shortly
into the drive I encountered some heavy traffic.  As I shuffled along,
the A/C kept cutting out.  This has happened before, again in heavy
traffic, and on a hot day.  Later, after the traffic finally
dissipated, the A/C nor Recirc buttons/icons would stay lit, no matter
whether I stopped and shut the car off or not.

When I got to my destination, I left the car until the next day, when
I started it up and the A/C worked fine.  A quick drive that evening
with the AC on was fine.  Finally, on the trip back to boston (with no
traffic and slightly ~5* cooler temps) the AC worked the whole way
home with no incident.

Also, late in both drives, my CC cluster became hard to operate.
Buttons near the top would not function, but lower ones worked OK.
This doesn't seem completely related to the traffic problem, as I
could press the snowflake button, but it turned right off.

Any ideas?  There didn't appear to be any overheating issues as the
idiot light did not come on and the temperature never climbed off the
fat line, although is did creep to the hot side of it.  Could my CC
head be overheating?  Compressor clutch?  There doesn't seem to be any
additional noise although the car does drive somewhat more sluggish
with the AC on.

Would love to find a solution for this...the one place I want AC the
most is where it habitually cuts out...

-Andrew