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Ok so my moms honda accord is acting up a bit. Whenever i turn the AC on i get nothing the compressor does not turn on. However when I let the car warm up with the AC button in the car turned on, the two fans on the radiator come on and the AC compressor also turns on i can tell because you hear the click and i can see the AC clutch start spinning, but then probably 15-20 seconds later the fans turn off and so does the compressor.
There are some exposed wires in the drivers side wheel well (the plastic guard for the wheel well that would normally shield these wires from the elements is gone for some reason) their were a few wires that had been stripped a bit and the copper was exposed so the wires could have been touching at some point i have since taped them all up.
I checked every single fuse and found that the condenser fan fuse was blown I replaced the fuse a few days ago and it still has not blown again.
The AC was working just fine about a week ago. It seemed to just stop working out of the blue. Im thinking it might be the ac clutch relay that is mounted to the radiator just above the ac compressor (or at least i think that's the ac clutch relay). I have tried looking at wiring diagrams but i cant make sense of them for the life of me. Ill post some pictures if anybody wants any and let me know if you need more info. Thanks.
When the ac is not working, check for continuity across the ac pressure switch. If no continuity, it's likely you're low on refrigerant ... ie. too little in the system
Do you know where the AC pressure switch is or what it looks like? The AC was charged last year I doubt it would be low unless something caused it to be.
It's normally by the left headlight area. It will have a connector connected. Just follow the ac lines, obviously it will be connected into the line. Yes, if the refrigerant is low that means you have a leak.
Well I disconnected the connector that gives the compressor power, its like right next to the compressor. Then ran a wire from the battery straight into the compressor and it fired right up ac worked too, could that happen if i was low on refrigerant? Or if the pressure switch was bad? I think its electrical.
Its not that im willingly not following you advice I just cant do anything with it. I dont know how to test a pressure switch and if i did i wouldn't have the tool required to do it and I cant find it and wouldn't know what to do if I did. Thats not your fault I know, that very well could be the issue. So instead of giving up i did something I can do which is jump the compressor with the battery to see if it is even functional, then i decided to post the results in case it made anything jump out at one of you.
Go down to walmart or harbor freight. For about $15 you can get a digital auto ranging multimeter(tester). Turn it onto the function that beeps when you touch the two leads together. Find the pressure switch, it really isn't hard to find. You just need to look. It will be in plain sight somewhere and lost_again appeared to know exactly where. Unplug the connector. On the switch itself, test the two pins for continuity. If it beeps you have enough freon in the system and the issue lies elsewhere.
Keep in mind some of them will auto turn off after x amount of seconds to prevent the batteries from running down. They will normally beep a few seconds before doing so so keep that mind when you try to test. You may want to test the leads together to test any time you try to use that function to make sure it didn't auto turn off.
The freon(or refrigerant) in the system has oil in it that also serves to lubricate the parts, namely the compressor. You can test the compressor by doing that test but you only want to do it for a second. With your test complete, it means there still could be too little freon in the system.
Oh ok, I already have a multimeter and i found the function that makes it beep when i touch the leads. I thought I needed like a pressure tester kit or something, thanks for the info I will try it in the morning and let you know how it goes.
Oh ok so the switch is the thing thats physically on that aluminum ac line? So i unplug the connector in the bottom picture and test the thing on the ac line? Thats going to be tight ill probably have to get under the car or remove the battery to test that, thanks ill let you know how it goes.
Oh ok so the switch is the thing thats physically on that aluminum ac line?
YES
Originally Posted by Rotting Prelude
So i unplug the connector in the bottom picture and test the thing on the ac line?
YES
Originally Posted by Rotting Prelude
Thats going to be tight
YES
This could still be an issue with the wires on the drivers side wheel well. So if you don't feel like crawling around to get to the AC pressure switch, there are some other tests that can be done at the relay(s) on the drivers/left side of the car. They are just inside of the drivers headlight, held to the rad.
You can kind of follow the wire from the ac compressor to them. One relay os for the drivers side rad fan, the other is for the ac compressor.
Yah I already did that, their are two relays mounted to the rad, one is for the ac clutch the other i believe is for the condenser fan they looked exactly the same and had the same connector so I switched them to see if maybe one was bad ac still didn't work so i switched them back. I even tried the ac clutch relay from my prelude (also looked exactly the same) in case they were both fried still didn't work. I also checked all the harnesses I thought the AC went through for burn marks in case there was a short i couldn't find any. And other things that go through that wheel well like the headlights and blinkers work fine.
The condenser fan fuse did blow once but i have since taped up those exposed wires and it hasn't blown again.
Looks like I'll be checking that pressure switch, im about to head over to my buddys house he has a jack and some jack stands so i can get under the car for a better angle at that switch.
im haveing the same problem only thing is my compressor is not working at all but when I put direct power from the battery to the compressor kicks on what can be the problem? I even added coolant. And just put this compressor in. this is streeing me out!!!!
07-10-2015, 11:01 AM
1996 Honda Accord 4cyl A/C issue. Need help.
