I seem to have a A/C problem but I do not know exactly what part of the A/C system is malfunctioning. The symptom is that there is no cold air coming from the a/c. The blower is working as air does come thru but no cold air. The malfunction has happened 3 times now and so far it only seems to happen the car has been left out in the sun for a prolonged time. When I come back to the car and turn on the a/c there is no cold air coming through. Also, when the a/c does work it never really gets ice cold even with the temp set to 62.

Does anyone know what might be the culprit? or has run into a similar issue?
I will take into the dealer soon but I would like to know ahead of time exactly what might be the problem so they don't quote me some nonsense.

 

I've read that if the ECON button is lit, that the AC will not function "full blast", but in a lesser capacity. Check to see that the AC button is lit, and the ECON is not. If the air blowing out is still not cool after a few minutes, it's something else that isn't right. Also, if the Recirc button (the one of the three that sits farthest to the left) is lit, the cabin air will be recirculating. Maybe if that inside air is really hot, you should be sure the Recirc button is off as well.

 

Thank you, but yes I already tried those combination of buttons and it all has the same result.

What part of the a/c system could intermittently work and not work depending on the how hot the temp gets? or could be a faulty part that is starting to wear down?

 

If you can get your hands on a service manual, there's a page that explains how to retrieve a DTC using the climate control buttons. Most of the diagnostic trouble codes seem to point to problems with various circuits (temperature sensor circuits, sunlight sensor circuit, etc.)
There's also a symptom troubleshooting index that list several possible problems, some of which point to a bad fuse. You can PM me for more specific info on which fuse/fuse box to check. To be on the safe side I removed that specific info because I'd hate for someone to start messing with fuses and affect some other part of their car, causing a worse problem. But if you are good at checking for bad fuses, I can pass on the specifics on which fuses to check.

I'm not a mechanic or anything, just happen to have a service manual, so other than reading off what I can see in it, I'm not of much help, sorry. The service department can probably figure it out quickly by coming up with the diagnostic trouble codes. Maybe take a look to see if the condenser and radiator fans are working; if one of them isn't working. it may just be due to a bad fuse.

 

Thank for the info. I'll pm you about which fuse box. I know there are 2 under the hood and one under the driver dash. Can you tell me where you got the service manual?

I will take it to the dealer the first chance. Thanks again!

 

Pms sent & received. Good luck. I hope the fix is not a difficult or expensive one.

 

Ah well just my luck. All fuses are fine. I will have to check if all the fans are working with the A/C on during the day. Thanks again for your assistance Gairwyn.

 

Gairwyn, you still on here? My 2004 HCH (MT) just had the AC drop dead one morning after working perfectly fine the drive home the night before. Blower runs fine, just AC not cold. Since it "died" the AC has blown cold twice, first time on the morning it died, for about 5 minutes right as I drove into the parking garage at work (after an hour without AC of course) and the second time for again about 5 minutes on my way to drop it off (as you'd expect it stopped working before I got to the shop).

I've used the shop in the past but not sure they know their way around auto AC as they went from 1 day to check it out to 2 days, then ended up not charging me a diagnostic fee. Ticket just said "compressor coming apart inside" and recommended replacing pretty much the entire AC hardware, evac and recharge, for $1500+...

Any debugging help would be greatly appreciated.

 

Hi Larry,
Yeah I'm still here, but like I said to pscdoc, I'm certainly not a mechanic. We were just checking obvious things, fuses and climate control settings & such, and I never did find out what was the resolution to his car's problem.

Was it a Honda shop you took your car to? If not, maybe you can get a second opinion from there (Honda), just to make sure the diagnosis you got is correct. The Honda guys should know how to bring up the specific diagnostic trouble codes that would pinpoint the problem.
It sounds like your shop found something mechanically wrong with your compressor. From flipping through the manual it looks like replacing that is a pretty involved procedure. Some other things I see mentioned in the service manual are an AC compressor clutch and an AC compressor clutch relay. Maybe you can have those checked out to see if those are okay or not. If it's just a relay, that would be way cheaper than having to replace the entire AC system, so I'd ask about that.

Sorry I can't be of much more help other than to look up things in the book and make guesses about the possibilities.

 

I found an interesting article regarding compressors in hybrid cars:

http://www.i-car.com/pdf/advantage/o...006/053006.pdf

Not sure if the info applies to the 2004 models, but it's interesting what they say about the "oil".

It says in the article that the early models have a belt. Hopefully your shop checked the belt, the hoses, checked for leaks, checked to make sure the fluid levels were correct and such. Maybe check the fuses.
I've just been googling around for info that may be useful.