If you hear a rattle or whine under the hood, first check your steering fluid. if your fluid is fine, check your pulleys. The A/C pulley bearings or clutch can ceeze causing failure and/or fire. If the A/C clutch intermittently moves then it is going out. This is the same for all makes and models. On your Toyota/Lexus you may lose your climate control and gauges due to a short caused by an overheating A/C pulley melting wires behind the pulley. The fuse will blow each time the A/C is turned on. Pull the A/C relay and replace fuse, then test the climate controls. If the fuse holds, unplug A/C pump wire and replace relay. If the fuse still holds on test, then replace your A/C compressor as the damage will have already be done to the compressor itself. Fix it early when it's just the pulley bearings and clutch.

 

Seen this happen before on a Toyota. AC compressor seized up, smoked the AC belt, and the AC button on the dashboard stopped working after that. Even after the AC compressor was replaced, the dashboard switch didn’t work ever again.
There weren’t any warning signs that I remember. It was a very long time ago. I was a kid back then. I did get blamed for causing the failure, which is nice. All I did was push the AC button because it was hot in the car.