Plecotus

Hi world,

I bought a pre-owned '07 Honda Civic about 7 months ago. I'm staying in the US for about 6 more months then i'll be selling this vehicle again and move back home.

Just a couple of weeks ago, I noticed an issue with my A/C. It used to blow ice cold air when turned all the way down, just like you'd expect it to. But now, it just blows air. It's not warm, but it's not really cold either.

First thought: freon needs to be refilled.

However, every now and again, the A/C start blowing ice cold air again! It will be less than 1% of the time, and it'll only last for 1-2 mins, then the cold air disappears again. That makes me believe it might not be a refrigerant fluid issue after all, since then it wouldn't ever blow cold air. Right?
Also, it starts working randomly (after 30mins, 2hr, ...) and not only right after starting your engine, like I've seen people complain about on this forum in other threads.

Since it's getting warmer again in Texas now, I needed to have this fixed, so I took it to the shop to other day. After 2hrs of diagnostics they told me:

<quote>
the electric control panel under the dash for your A/C is bad and needs to be replaced, as well as a couple of relays.
</quote>

They priced the repair at around $600.
I asked for a couple of days to think about it

Now on my romantic valentine's weekend getaway, spending 3hr driving out of the city, we noticed that the dash gets pretty hot. When you put your hand where all the radio and A/C buttons are, it feels really really warm. Not sure that's normal, or if that could have to do with the supposedly malfunctioning electrical panel. I hadn't noticed before, but never really paid attention to it either.

One more thing to notice: when it DOES blow cold air (briefly), it smells a little musty. That could point to a bad filter I think? But why wouldn't it smell musty all the time then? It only smells this way during the 1-2 mins it blows cold air. After it starts blowing 'regular' air, the smell goes away.

I'm fairly new to living in the US, and I'm not sure if this shopkeeper is just trying to hustle me out of $600, or if this could be legit. I'd love to get a second opinion elsewhere, but that'll cost me another $110 in service diagnostic fees.

Anyone has any suggestions? Would be much appreciated.

Thanks

Plecotus

I ended up going to an official Honda dealership.
They found two issues:
1) A/C not blowing cold air was because of a malfunctioning relay which prevented the compressor to kick in. Nothing was found to be wrong with the electric control panel
2) the musty smell was not because of a dirty filter, but just in general because of dirt in the A/C housing

New relay cost $30 and including diagnostics and repair, it cost me $250 to fix and clean my A/C.

outgunned

It is the relay. Just got done having my si fixed for the same thing