Roniszoro

I have a problem on my 1997 Honda Accord LX in that the A/C stays on after I turn off the engine and remove the key form the ignition. This is the fan at the radiator as well as the fan in the car. Everything else goes off, e.g. radio, power windows. One of our fellow Honda-Tech forum members has kindly suggested that it might be a faulty Main Relay. But I'm confused as to what the Main Relay does in that when I look on line to buy one, there are references to fuel pumps.

Thank you in advance for your input.

tech8

The main relay is used to operate the fuel pump and supplies power to the fuel injectors, and heated oxygen sensor. It would not have anything to do with your cooling fans running.

When you say the A/C stays on, is the compressor clutch running?

Roniszoro

What happens is that the A/C cooling fan at the radiator stays on as does the fan that blows air into the passenger compartment of the car, as do the lights on the cooling/heating controls. If I turn off the A/C at the dash button, there is no change. The fan at the radiator keeps running as does the fan blowing air into the passenger compartment and the lights indicating where the air is going (from dash or below) are on as well. If I shut off the fan at the dash controlling the air into the passenger compartment, it goes off but the indicator lights on the dash stay on as does the fan at the radiator. After a while as the car cools down they all go off, but I don't know if it is related to the car cooling down or not.

tech8

I dealt with someone with a similar problem on another forum before. This is possibly a shorted A/C compressor clutch relay. With the ignition Off, using the handle part of a screwdriver, tap on the relay several times with the handle to see if everything shuts off. If that does not do it, try swapping the condenser fan relay with the compressor clutch relay and seeing if there is a difference. The relays are next to each other.

If it is a shorted relay, replace the relay to prevent the same issue from recurring in the future.

Roniszoro

Thank you Tech8. I'll have screwdriver ready the next time it happens. I does not happen every time I shut off the car. I'll keep you posted. I really appreciate your help.

Roniszoro

So life gets worse. I just went out to pick up a pizza and the car won't start. The starter won't turn over the engine at all and the head lights are quite dim when I turn them on. Battery appears to be really discharged. Why? Well I discover that the brake lights are on and won't go off. They've likely been on for about 4 hours since I last drove the car and have drained the battery. I've disconnected the battery to save what little energy it has left. Took my wife's car to get the pizza but am feeling like I should drink a bottle of scotch and begin praying to the patron saint of old Hondas. Don't know what to do. Thoughts anyone?

tech8

If the brake lights are staying on, then check whether the brake pedal stopper pad is still there. It may have broken off due to age, it is only a few bucks at the dealer.

Jump the car battery and run it . If necessary, replace the battery if it can't hold a charge anymore.

lostforawhile

you can also get those brake pedal pads at the yard, lots of Honda ones are the same, grab a bunch of them the next time you go look up under the dash where the arm hits the brake light switch, there should be a rubber plug in the hole that pushes on the switch

lostforawhile

someone else just had this same issue on the same car, it turned out to the switch unit,talking about the AC issue

tech8

That was not the same car. . .

https://honda-tech.com/forums/showth...3219582&page=2