Let me give you guys alittle background on what happend.


A couple months back my ac was blowing cool but not cold air.

I took it to the repair shop to have the ac recharged and it worked great after that.

A couple weeks later i decided to get a car wash. After leaving the car wash i felt the car was underpowered when hitting the gas and the ac was blowing regular air whether accelerating or not. So i thought maybe just something got wet. The next day i start it up and it seems alot better in terms of power, ac blew cool but colder when accelerating.

Now it just seems like it happens sporadically. Sometimes i start it up and the ac runs cold on idle, but more times it blows just regular air on idle. Everytime i hit the gas and accelerate it gets cold quickly.

I brought it to the shop to have it checked on freon and they say its good and when they inspected it, it was running cold on idle so they couldnt see any problem and told me to bring it back if it happens again. Compressor seems to be running whenever the ac is turned on.
any ideas what the problem can be?


2003 honda civic ex, 65k miles

 

The condenser fan intermittently may fail to run. Check the plugs and relay.

 

sorry i dont know much about cars but is the condensor fan one of the 2 fans in the front under the hood?

both seem like their running even when it doesnt blow cold.

 

The condenser fan sits next to the radiator fan under the hood.

In general, when the A/C fails to blow cold, either the condenser fan won't run or the compressor clutch won't engage or both. Classifying your problem into one of these three categories will help pinpoint the problem. Given that the fans run, I assume the problem is compressor clutch engagement. In this case, start by checking the clutch relay in the hood fuse box and the thermal protector on the compressor. Another possibility is that the clutch armature plate gap is too wide.

 

thanks for the detailed explanation. I really do appreciate the help.

Does either of these possible problems explain why i get cold air if i just hit the gas?

i mean i dont think this is something i can fix on my own but i want to have a sense of what the problem might be before i take it to the shop.

 

The compressor clutch can get a wide gap so it barely doesn't engage; then any disturbance such as revving the engine will help engage it. You need to observe if the clutch is engaged when it is not cooling. The plate next to the pulley with rivets and springs on it will spin when the clutch is engaged and sit still when it is not. The pulley and belt move all the time the engine is running whether the compressor is engaged or not.

On a 2003, both fans should run at the same time when the A/C is on.