So I just traded in my 05 civic (250k miles) for a 2012 Fit. The AC was not working when I looked at it, and the dealership "fixed" it, presumably by recharging the refrigerant. It worked great for one day, then was blowing lukewarm air again by the next day. Another possibly important detail: right after they recharged it and the AC was blowing cold, I noticed a fog/smoke emanating from the vents after switching off the AC. When I turned it on again, the fog went away. It was a hot, humid day, and I realize the fog may have just been an atmospheric phenomenon, but figured i'd mention it anyway. I'm bring it back to the dealership tomorrow, but the technicians there get mixed reviews as to competence. Any info I can glean would be very helpful. Any thoughts?

 

Is it a Honda dealership or some other kind of dealership?

 

It's a Honda dealership

 

The smoke you saw is common for a refrigerant charge in most vehicles, no need for concern. However it would seem to me that you have an A/C leak in your system. The components of the A/C include: Compressor, Pressure hoses, condenser, accumulator, and evaporator. During harsh weather climates the rubber on the A/C pressure hoses can crack and distort, causing a refrigerant leak. We use refrigerant dye and a UV light to find the source of the leak, which is almost always the pressure hoses. Dont bring it to the dealership unless your comfortable w/ spending hundreds of dollars on a simple problem. Find a smaller shop with an older tech who's been there awhile, you'll get a much better deal.

 

Hello,

I have gone down as many avenues as I can to try to find out what is wrong with the a/c.

1. I got the systems pressure checked, granted not with the dye which could be the problem (small leak somewhere) and the refrigerant has all gone.

2. A good friend of mine was at the dealership the other day and was told that 70-80% of the a/c problems come from the compressor clutch relay. So I went to the dealership (where I bought the car) and purchased the relay for $36 Canadian dollars tax in. Conner55 posted that the relays are found behind the drivers side headlight, approx. under the battery. So I replaced the relay (there are three at this location on the Gen. 2 Fit's, the compressor clutch relay is the one that is perpendicular to the other two. So there are two in-line and one perpendicular to the other two). Anyway I took the old one out and found a youtube video on how to check relays. I grabbed a 14.4 volt Dewalt battery and gave the relay power (there is of course a positive and negative power that you hook up to the battery. On my stock relay the positive terminal is the top one when the silver connections are on the left. I hooked up the battery using alligator clips and heard a click. Apparently this is not where you should assume that your relay works. Take it a step further and test the relay with a multimeter, if there is close to no resistance then the relay works. And of course mind did.

So that doesn't leave me with many options aside from tossing down big bucks at somewhere other than the dealership in hopes that it can be fixed and not break the bank.

Hope this helps, and if anyone has a suggestions as to what the problem might be aside from a small leak (only detectable by dye) please enlighten me.

That is all

Petetheputter

 

Turns out my AC had a leak in the evaporator. Since this is the in-dash component, shop techs are loathe to check it if not absolutely necessary, since it is only accessible by removing the dash (time consuming, lots of potential to break other things in the process). According to some sources, the fog/mist emanating from the vents can indicate a leak in the evaporator.

 

I am getting confused here. Is the dealership going to fix the problem or not? Dye is not the only way to check for a leak. They can also do it with a sniffer. They simply stick th sniffer in the vent without the engine running. If that does find anything then they start the car put the A/C on max and the fan on minimum and sniff the AC vent again. If neither of these find anything then I would not be blaming the evaporator. They are correct in that replacing the evaporator is usually a big job requiring the removal of the dash. Diagnosing a leaking evaporator is a simple job. So is the evaporator leaking or not. Are they going to fix the evaporator or not?

I'll withhold my opinion of their capabilities for now but you need to get this fixed before your warranty runs out.

 

Not always true. I mean, they're going to get a decent amount of flag hours to take some clips, screws, and panels off LOL. It'd take me like a couple of hours at most.

 

To clarify: the car is in the dealership shop, where they have determined that the evaporator is leaking, and they are replacing the evaporator, for free. This is the third time I've had my car in there, and the only reason they successfully are able to discover that the evaporator is leaking is because I took it upon myself to do troubleshooting and diagnosis myself (much of my research has been conducted in forums such as this one). Knowing that there was a leak, when I saw that multiple people cited fog/mist as an indication of a leak in the evaporator, I told the dealership about it and told them to check there (even though they claimed that they'd already gone through the "whole system", apparently they hadn't checked this component). I hope this clears up any confusion.

 

Wow man, those are some dodgy techs your dealing with. They're probably trying to give you the run-around to discourage you from validating your warranty, because they assume you know nothing. I hope everything goes well, and they end up installing a new one. Dealerships can be a nightmare if they know you arent spending! Hopefully mines not going out either because i saw a/c fog coming out of my vent the other day ;-;