A friend of mine has a '98 SSEi and recently had his ECC start to blink and then blow out cold air. He says that if he shuts it off then starts back up that it will blow hot again.

Sounds like the arimix actuator to me, just looking for some confirmation

That does have the sound of an airmix actuator going haywire, but...to confirm, you can always pull out the glovebox liner and watch the rod move through the litle hole to be more sure.