Hey guys, my A/C stopped working recently. I checked underhood and I can see that my compressor is not spooling up when the A/C button is pushed. I understand this can mean one of two things: either the compressor clutch is broken and I need a new compressor, or there is a leak in the system and I have no refrigerant.

I'd like to hear your A/C horror stories. What's the more common cause? And if you had a leak in the refrigerant plumbing...where was it? And the all important question...how much $ did you spend to fix the damn thing.

 

(clears throat)

"....testing...?"

(tap tap)

 

When I bought my 91 a few months ago Id Turn on the AC and noticed the clutch on the compressor wasnt turning on!

I took it to a shop they did a test...They saw there was no Gas in the system, they vacumed it [to add refridgerant] and noticed it wasn't vacuming completey...which meant a leak!!

They added a can of some R134 OIL then some R134 Refrigerant {I converted right then an there cause R12 Freon is to expensive}

I turned on the AC and after a few seconds the air started comming cold I was so happy but then we saw smoke from the from of the car.....the Condenser was leaking!

Next day I bought and replaced the condenser myself!! RE charged the system and it works perfect

 

As I understand it - and admittedly me, my experience is pretty limited - If you were out of refrigerant, your compressor would click on and off in fairly rapid succession, as opposed to not running at all. Running your A/C this way is not good for the compressor clutch - you may have been running it not knowing it if you turned your defroster on. (I'm not sure if they just started doing this in the 6th gen or if previous generations did it as well).

If you've worked on A/C systems before, I would start by grabbing a compressor and clutch from a junkyard, but this is not an easy job. IMO, it's worth it just to let an auto A/C shop do it.

The best preventative maintenance is to run your A/C even off-season occasionally. This keeps the system lubricated. However, Honda's A/C systems are better than most, they tend to be extremely reliable (friend of mine has an _82_ Prelude with working A/C that has never been serviced).

 

A/C services are just expensive, i have had enough of the b.s. regarding to the A/C services...

well last year, i had to replace the evacuator, some hoses and little bitty thinggy from the honda dealer, and after 8months later the a/c failed to work again.
i took it to the dealer and they were like "our tech couldn't find anything, the very last place to check is the a/c evacuator, since it's hiding behind the glove box and can't check the leak unless you take it out, so i was like, "yeah take it out and check it!" then they couldn't find anything wrong with it.

now everything put back together with 2lbs of freon gas and we are still troubleshooting if there is any leaks or not.
if in case, the freon doesn't leak anymore, that means the honda tech didn't install the evacuator right at the first time.

anyways, my story is leaning to the OT, but yeah the best way to find out is just have the tech to check it out. and you know all parts and labor done at dealer come with 1yr & 12000miles warranty.

good luck!

 

Thanks dudes. I hope it's like jerzy's problem and not vtec94's...

 

wow, so many stories about A/C, here's mine: It's running Okay, but it doesn't blow that strong nor that much cold either, so any suggestion? refill the Refrigerant?

 

this has been happenig to me the past few days. hot as hell here in jersey, 2 good days in a row without rain..woohoo haha. so i went down the shore both days in my black car with black leather and like DIED of heat. i want my ac back. this is what was happenign to me, it was turning on for like 5 seconds and then off for 5 seconds and then on, etc. the air was pretty warm. a few days ago, i recharged my freon with a 19oz bottle of freon and it didnt seem to do anything, but the gauge showed that it was in the green area meanign good, not empty and not overfilled. but it read about the same spot before and after i put the can in. do you think i need more? what should i check? thanks!

 

how do you add refrigerant? i did it one time but i forgot the instuctions. i still have some in the bottle i used last time but i forgot the procedure.

 

and another random thing is that tonight when it was cooler, the ac compressor stays on for longer instead of just a few seconds, and the air is cool, but not cold. durring the heat today at 80-85mph, the compressor kept clicking on and off quickly....and the air was just not cold at all