As you may know... I bought my car(95 EX) about a week ago. AC blows fairly cold, takes a bit to cool down, but once it does its good.

Yesterday I got in the car, and started her. The AC was on and it blew very very warm, and it didn't get any better as time went on.

So after a bit I turned it off, and rolled down the windows since I was on the highway. Once I got off and was at a stop light I turned the AC button back on. Nothing happend. Usually the RPMs bump up a bit, and you can hear the compressor (I think) turn on.

Anyway, next light I tried it again. This time it came on. I left it on. As I was driving I felt it go off, and could feel the air warming up. It turned on once more right before I got home.

Clearly I was upset. I left it till this morning, and when I got out to the car... it seemed to be working fine...?

Any thoughts on what this may be, and more importantly, what the proper steps to troubleshoot this might be?

Thanks in advance.

 

Check all of your A/C electrical connections under the hood.

 

You may have low charge and low pressure swith is acting funny.

Do you have R12 still? Or has it been converted to R134a?

Can you see if your compressor is engeged while the system is turned on?

 

You are talking to a true n00b here... I'm reading a lot and trying mightly to learn... but unfortunatley I wouldn't know an AC electrical connection if it came up and bit me in the @$$. I do have the Haynes manual, so hopefully that will point me in the right direction.

As for R12 or R134a, I just bought the car used, but I'm guessing the previous owner did not have anything done to it.

It did it again yesterday... but got better later last night, and it was fine this morning. Could it have something to do with temperature? It has been very warm here (95+) the last few days, and both times it didn't work it was in the late afternoon. But it has pretty much been 100% in the evenings and mornings.

?

 

I'm quite sure your car has the R134a refrigerant in it.

I think the best thing for you to do is to get it checked out and charged up, then see if there's still a problem.

 

Yeah, I suppose a recharge is the first step in any sort of troubleshooting process. Always start with the simpliest explaination, then go from there. Problem is I tend to start with the most complicated and then make things worse....

KISS

 

Make sure you let us know how you make out so that it'll help out anyone else that has the same problem in the future.

 

I definately will. And for those who may be interested here is what the federal government has to say about AC recharge. Pretty interesting stuff(if you are clueless like me). It discusses the difference between 'topping off' and an 'evac and recharge', and what the benefits of each are.

Recharging your car's AC

 

If the car is '95 and previous owner hasn't done anything to it, it is likely the car has R12 in it. You can check this out by looking in the engine compartment and look for a decal about your A/C system. It should tell you what you have. The trick here is that some mechanics do conversion on cars and don't put decals in the cars. If this is the case on your car, one way to know which charge you have would be to check the type of the fittings the car has. You would have to know what you are looking at, thogh, it should be easy, since you are doing a lot of readings.
R12 is now very expensive and you have to have license to buy. On the other hand R134a is cheap and you can buy it at any auto parts store. Even Wal-Mart, too.

Make sure your condensor fan is working while the system is on. Open hood, start engine, turn on A/C and see if both fans are running in the engine compartment is one way to check for this. Oh, also check to see if your condensor is clean. It's like a radiator in shape and function and has to have clear air passage in order to work efficiently. You could wash it down with a garden hose in shower mode so water pressure does not bend fins.

 

Just for reference, my 94 Civic uses R134a...when did Honda switch?