2003 Honda Civic Logo
Posted on Apr 21, 2009

Air condition is not cooling my car is Honda Civic 2003

Does turning air condition while driving cause compressor to malfunction?

  • melmass007 May 21, 2009

    i have same problem my Ac dont work but my mechanic found that the compressor is working fine, there is frion and its probably electric wiring on dash board, does anyone know a good electric mechanic helper for hondas?

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1 Answer

A

Anonymous

Realize that auto AC is basically a refrigerator in a weird layout. It's designed to move heat from one place (the inside of your car) to some other place (the outdoors). While a complete discussion of every specific model and component is well outside the scope of this article, this should give you a start on figuring out what the problem might be and either fixing it yourself or talking intelligently to someone you can pay to fix it.Become familiar with the major components to auto air conditioning:
the compressor, which compresses and circulates the refrigerant in the system the refrigerant, (on modern cars, usually a substance called R-134a older cars have r-12 freon which is becoming increasingly more expensive and hard to find, and also requires a license to handle) which carries the heat the condenser, which changes the phase of the refrigerant and expels heat removed from the car the expansion valve (or orifice tube in some vehicles), which is somewhat of a nozzle and functions to similtaneously drop the pressure of the refrigerant liquid, meter its flow, and atomize it
the evaporator, which transfers heat to the refrigerant from the air blown across it, cooling your car
the receiver/dryer, which functions as a filter for the refrigerant/oil, removing moisture and other contaminants Understand the air conditioning process: The compressor puts the refrigerant under pressure and sends it to the condensing coils. In your car, these coils are generally in front of the radiator. Compressing a gas makes it quite hot. In the condenser, this added heat and the heat the refrigerant picked up in the evaporator is expelled to the air flowing across it from outside the car. When the refrigerant is cooled to its saturation temperature, it will change phase from a gas back into a liquid (this gives off a bundle of heat known as the "latent heat of vaporization"). The liquid then passes through the expansion valve to the evaporator, the coils inside of your car, where it loses pressure that was added to it in the compressor. This causes some of the liquid to change to a low-pressure gas as it cools the remaining liquid. This two-phase mixture enters the evaporator, and the liquid portion of the refrigerant absorbs the heat from the air across the coil and evaporates. Your car's blower circulates air across the cold evaporator and into the interior. The refrigerant goes back through the cycle again and again. Check to see if all the R-134a leaks out (meaning there's nothing in the loop to carry away heat). Leaks are easy to spot but not easy to fix without pulling things apart. Most auto-supply stores carry a fluorescent dye that can be added to the system to check for leaks, and it will have instructions for use on the can. If there's a bad enough leak, the system will have no pressure in it at all. Find one of the valve-stem-looking things and CAREFULLY (eye protection recommended) poke a pen in there to try to valve off pressure, and if there IS none, that's the problem. Make sure the compressor is turning. Start the car, turn on the AC and look under the hood. The AC compressor is generally a pumplike thing off to one side with large rubber and steel hoses going to it. It will not have a filler cap on it, but will often have one or two things that look like the valve stems on a bike tire. The pulley on the front of the compressor exists as an outer pulley and an inner hub which turns when an electric clutch is engaged. If the AC is on and the blower is on, but the center of the pulley is not turning, then the compressor's clutch is not engaging. This could be a bad fuse, a wiring problem, a broken AC switch in your dash, or the system could be low on refrigerant (most systems have a low-pressure safety cutout that will disable the compressor if there isn't enough refrigerant in the system). Look for other things that can go wrong: bad switches, bad fuses, broken wires, broken fan belt (preventing the pump from turning), or seal failure inside the compressor. Feel for any cooling at all. If the system cools, but not much, it could just be low pressure, and you can top up the refrigerant. Most auto-supply stores will have a kit to refill a system, and it will come with instructions. Do not overfill! Adding more than the recommended amount of refrigerant will NOT improve performance but actually will decrease performance. In fact, the more expensive automated equipment found at nicer shops actually monitors cooling performance real-time as it adds refrigerant, and when the performance begins to decrease it removes refrigerant until the performance peaks again.

  • Anonymous Apr 21, 2009

    I think you just need some more R-134a refrigerant...you can buy this at your local auto parts store

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Air conditioning systems sometimes leak down and won't turn on when the refrigerant levels are too low.

Lift the hood and listen to the A/C compressor while someone inside the car turns it on.

Does the compressor engage for a second or two and then shut off?
If it does....you need to have your system checked for leaks and recharged.

If the compressor never comes on. Look at the A/C compressor relay. It should be under the hood in a little fuse box with other relays and fuses. When you find this relay you need to see if it works. You can buy a replacement relay and swap it or take it to a parts store and have it checked. Relays are 10-30 dollars and you should have three or four relays of the same type so a real cheap test is to swap a identical relay from an electric window or a defroster. You should see them sitting right next to the A/C relay if you have them.

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Coincidence... in my opinion.

1. In your long drive, you may have set the a/c on "Max" or "recirculate" ... and set the fan on low. This can cause "freezing" the core inside the vehicle; this will create a lot of pressure in the compressor and the clutch will slip.
The "freeze" will cause the air to feel warmer; because the refrigerant is not circulating correctly.

2. Also, if there was oil or some other lubricant on the clutch, the clutch would slip, heat-up and fall apart.

3. The "fixed" a/c controls may have left the "vent" (non-circulating) control disconnected so that the inside core is unable to receive any "outside" warm air to keep the core from freezing... (possible)

Hope this helps ... comments anyone??








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Air conditioning systems are always high-pressure systems,simply because the refrigerant used is a gas forced to become liquid.

In fact, a loss in pressure in the cooling lines means that your system will have no cooling capacity.

Your problem description points towards your compressor not engaging. There could be a switch in your car's interior/dashboard that indicates 'COOL' or A/C (or something like it) that should manually engage/disengage your a/c compressor.

In case this still does not work, your compressor clutch or the electrical system engaging this is faulty and will need the attention of a qualified service technician.

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check the switch continuety /a short somwhere?
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