Whirlpool refrigerator almost 6 yrs old making a clicking sound every few minutes. The fan is running okay, and inside the fridge is holding a cold temp. but compressor does seem really hot to the touch

Your cooling comes from the freezer side through cooling tubes to the refrigerator side.

The first thing is to make sure that the evaporator fan is working, because that will blow the cold air into the refrigerator side. If it is working then you probably have an ice build up around the evaporator. You will need to remove the inner rear panel of the freezer to check it.

If there is a lot of ice on the evaporator fins then your defrost circuit is not working. But if you manually defrost the freezer (a hair dryer will speed it up) and make sure the cooling tubes are clean of ice (can feel the air from the hair dryer on refrigerator side) then you will have anywhere from a few days to a few weeks before the ice build up returns.

So you should troubleshoot your defrost circuit and get the parts on order to be ready for the next time.

Believe it or not, this is pretty normal.

The fridge gets its cold air from the freezer through a vent(damper) between the freezer and fridge.The fan in the freezer blows air through it. Make sure this fan is running. You may have to hold the door switch in for it to run. There is a flap you adjust with the fridge temp. control. Make sure it's opening and closing when you adjust the fridge temp.
The problem could be the electronic control if you have one or the mechanical linkages.

Nope, the fridge was in defrost mode. had sears home repair tech out who showed me the defrost timer on inside top of fridge side compartment. wish my manual had pointed that out! back in business.

PS. used a leaf blower to remove 6 years of dust buildup underneath as nothing else would do it. what a mess

You have one of two problems going on. Your fan is spinning at hitting the sides. Or your compressor is shot which seems to be more the problem and even though it is cold the humming sound is a warning for you that the compressor is shot and it is more affordable to replace the fridge then the compressor. Sometimes compressor can cost more then the fridge.

The clicking is from your compressor relay on the side of the compressor it has eather went bad or a condenser fan motor is not running this will cause the walls to be warm if the fan is running in the back try cleaning the coils hope this helps

if there is no frost build up in freezer section sounds like a refrigerant leak

take frount grill off for cleaning

This sounds like you have a Maytag Ice2O. You need to find out if that cound is a relay/overoad failure on the compressor or the compressor going out. I can say from experience that some of those have a tecumsie comprossor in them and the do tend to fail. If you hear a loud electrical humming sound coming from the compressor and your getting a warm up then you need to record this sound on some kind of sound recorder and call a Whirlpool warrenty certified tech. out to look at it if it's less than 5 years old from perchase date then Whirlpool will pick up the part and labor bill of a compressor installation also check your owners manual for warrenty details. Hit me up let me know.

Own the same model, the icemaker and the dispenser work properly but the leak is top center of the refrigerator compartment.