Here goes. The air works like a champ since purchasing the car used less than a year ago. After a cool interior drive of 100 miles, stopped the car for food then upon restarting, the air did not work. The available mechanic decided he needed to evac and recharge the freon and it should work. It did not. If you remove the fuse and make a direct wire connection, they were able to get it to run perfectly. They said it was a bad computer, I thought maybe a bad fuse. I purchased a fuse and once it was in, the air worked for about 5 minutes then nothing. I removed the fuse for a week while I biked to work then reinstalled it. Again, it worked for about 5 minutes. So do I need to replace the computer, do one of those diagnostic things at the shop or what? What do you think? 2002 Honda Civic LX, 163000
Okay,this is weird. I got on this site to see if I could post a question about the A/C, when I saw yours. I have a problem very similar for a 2000 Toyota Camry. Was driving the car from one building to another, the A/C was working fine. Upon restarting, the A/C was blowing hot air. Took to my cousin and he added a can of freon and said that after running dye thru, he could not see a leak. Took the car; everything was fine for about a month. Driving home from San Antonio the A/C was working fine, stopped to get gas and as before…when turning the car back on the A/C was blowing hot air. Then a few days later, it started working again - blowing cold. Can not figure out what the problem could possibly be: a vacuum, a switch or door?? If you find out anything or anyone has any ideas, please let me know. Kinda hard to take to the mechanic when it’s working.
Be more specific. When you say, " . . . upon restarting, the air did not work," what does that mean? Did the blower not work (no air coming out of the vents), or did the compressor not kick in (air, but not cold).
Which fuse was jumped to make it work? Which fuse did you replace?
In my opinion the best thing to do when you have automotive AC problems is to take the vehicle to a shop that specializes in automotive heating and AC systems. They’re the experts, and can correctly diagnose and repair the system.
Why guess? Take it to an expert.
This sounds more like a blend door problem than an AC problem. If you’re getting cold air the compressor is working.
To both dougiefresh27 and pansy0508:
A failing air conditioner isn’t a do-it-yourself problem. You need a certified air conditioning technician to diagnose and fix your problem. In dougiefresh27’s case, you need to find a better certified air conditioning technician than the one you used in the past. You need a true diagnostician to figure out what is wrong and fix it instead of throwing parts at the problem. It’s going to cost money, but in the case of air conditioning diagnostics and repair, you get what you pay for, and free advice is often worth every penny.
Yeah, I’d agree to have someone look at it. There is a pressure switch that senses the pressure in the line and if it is too low, shuts the compressor off, or the switch could be bad. Had that happen on a two year old car just out of the blue. When you say it quits after 5 minutes, are you talking about the compressor stopping, or just warm air. Problem is you really need to provide more detail so its best to have a shop look at it.
Let’s see if I can add more info to help. The pressure is good b/c I had it vacuumed and recharged. The compressor works b/c when they removed the switch in the fuse panel in the engine compartment it worked just fine. But when I push my A/C button in the cabin, the compressor does not turn on. It did those two times for five minutes but not since then.
I know this isn’t a fix it yourself job but I’m trying to save time at the mechanics shop since they charge more than a doctor or lawyer does it seems. So basically after driving with the air on and working fine, I shut the car off to shop for food, came back, started the car and the air did not work, no compressor action but since then we have figured out that the compressor works fine and the pressure is fine it just isn’t kicking on. I hoped it would be as simple as replacing the switch which I did but it was only a five minute fix then back to no air action. Thanks