# 2001 Honda Civic A/C - "Fixed" But Still Not Working

**URL:** <https://community.cartalk.com/t/2001-honda-civic-a-c-fixed-but-still-not-working/67661>\
**Category:** Maintenance/Repairs\
**Tags:** airconditioning, honda\
**Created:** [September 5, 2011, 1:36pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/2001-honda-civic-a-c-fixed-but-still-not-working/67661 "2011-09-05T13:36:21Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![adsmeth74](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/48db29/32.png) [@adsmeth74](https://community.cartalk.com/u/adsmeth74)\
**Post date:** [September 5, 2011, 1:36pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/2001-honda-civic-a-c-fixed-but-still-not-working/67661/1 "2011-09-05T13:36:21Z")

</div>

Hi, I have a 2002 Civic LX. A/C worked until a few months ago. It would stay on for about ten minutes and then stopping blowing cold air; it would come back on and then go off again at it’s own whim. Bought it to local Goodyear - told them the problem - they charged me about $130 to evacuate and recharge, looked for leafs but told me they saw no problems with the A/C, the condenser was fine, etc. A few days later, same problems started. Runs great for about ten minutes and then does its own thing. I am going to bring to to a different Goodyear, as it’s under warranty (though Goodyear is being a bit difficult about that since they are franchised) but I want to get a sense from any Car Talk fans if they’ve had similar experiences and know what the problem could be. I don’t want to get robbed by Goodyear and if this is something I could fix myself, I will. Thanks for reading.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![cigroller](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c68b51/32.png) [@cigroller](https://community.cartalk.com/u/cigroller)\
**Post date:** [September 5, 2011, 2:48pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/2001-honda-civic-a-c-fixed-but-still-not-working/67661/2 "2011-09-05T14:48:19Z")

</div>

I’d imagine that the problem is that none of the Goodyear locations that you visit has anyone who really knows anything about A/C systems. What they will have is the machine that will evacuate the system, put it under vacuum to see whether or not the vacuum holds (as a leak check), and then refill the system, probably by refrigerant weight while the machine also monitors the high & low side pressures.

A couple/few people at the Goodyear shops will probably know how to operate that machine. But that doesn’t mean that they know how to check an A/C system.

So…what you probably want to do is find a locally owned, independent shop that specializes in A/C systems and take the car there.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Tester](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/cartalk/user_avatar/community.cartalk.com/tester/32/15976_2.png) [@Tester](https://community.cartalk.com/u/Tester)\
**Post date:** [September 5, 2011, 9:19pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/2001-honda-civic-a-c-fixed-but-still-not-working/67661/3 "2011-09-05T21:19:30Z")

</div>

The on again off again AC performance might be caused from a defective evaporator expansion valve. This valve controls the amout of refrigerant that enters the evaporator. I’ve replaced a lot of defective expansion valves on Honda’s for the same problem.

Tester