I have a 94 Honda Civic, the A/c works but when you put it under load like
merging with traffic it kicks off and gets warm, then does not kick back
on. I have checked the freon it is fine all fues are in order, the fan
kicks on when ac is on. Now in addition to that there are times when you
start the car and turn on the A/C the car idle jumps to 2000 rpm the
compressor will not kick on and the idle jumps between 1000 - 2000 rpm the
car just blows out hot air. not sure if the two are related or if it is 2
seperate problems. Whatever it is I would like to know what problem (s) so
I can fix it. We took it to a shop they wanted to replace the whole system,
telling my wife the compressor was bad!! Not taking the car to a
shop!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

mvarcola wrote:
>
> I have a 94 Honda Civic, the A/c works but when you put it under load like
> merging with traffic it kicks off and gets warm, then does not kick back
> on. I have checked the freon it is fine all fues are in order, the fan
> kicks on when ac is on. Now in addition to that there are times when you
> start the car and turn on the A/C the car idle jumps to 2000 rpm the
> compressor will not kick on and the idle jumps between 1000 - 2000 rpm the
> car just blows out hot air. not sure if the two are related or if it is 2
> seperate problems. Whatever it is I would like to know what problem (s) so
> I can fix it. We took it to a shop they wanted to replace the whole system,
> telling my wife the compressor was bad!! Not taking the car to a
> shop!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The compressor has a thermal protector in it. If the compressor gets too
hot, the protector will turn off the magnetic clutch and disengage the
compressor. When this happens, the A/C system will still "believe" that
the A/C is running, so the condenser fan will stay on, and the ECU will
still open up the Idle Air Control valve to boost the idle speed. Your
high-idle symptoms seem consistent with a thimble protector opening up.

I don't know why your compressor gets hot (or even *if* it gets hot),
but with an 11 year old car you might want to have a look at the
condenser to see if it is filled up with debris and dead insects. It is
fragile, so be careful cleaning it. No pressure washing etc.
--
================================================== =====
A very modest collection of Honda tech info can be found at:
http://www.geocities.com/ng_randolph

 

Randolph,
Thank you for your response, I greatly appriciate the help. To give you an
update of what has happend so far. Sat night we were out and in a porking
lot sitting at idle when the car about died. I just installed a new
alternator last week. Went and had it tested and behold bad alternator.
When I got it off the post was so corroted it snapped off. (in a matter of
1 week, I put in the alt on 6/9/05) Replaced that on Sat night, the a/c
seems to be working ok but have not had a chance to really test it. I am
going to check the condensor tonight and possible attempt to carefully
clean it a little. But hopefully the problem was corrected with the
increase in voltage. THANK YOU very much for your help with this!!
Mike