Live Oak

From a cold start the ac on this Pilot works like a champ and will run you out of the vehicle. Both fans on the radiator/condenser come on. After approximately 5 to 10 minutes of operation it just quits working. The compressor clutch does not engage. I checked the compressor clutch relay and swapped out with a known good relay both Mitsuba. Still does not work. I hooked up a set of gauges while I had the ac working and the low side pressure stabilizes at 40 psi and the high side stabilizes at 200. The low side pressure seems a smidgen low but the high side seems a good bit low. I don't think it could be the outside air temperature sensor that functions with the auto mode because I tried selecting ac instead of auto and the air conditioning still does not work. I am thinking there may be a temperature related issue with the ac compressor clutch or possibly the tri-pressure switch in the ac system. Any suggestions or recommendation greatly appreciated.

Live Oak

Wow! 10 days and not a single reply. I am posting this so the next person to encounters this problem may benefit from what I encountered.

I did some troubleshooting/system analysis and narrowed down the problem to either a bad AC compressor clutch, a bad tri-pressure switch on the high side line, or perhaps a bad sensor.


As luck would have it. My suspicions were confirmed yesterday. I took my Pilot to the dealer and the brought it back to me about 20 minutes later telling me the AC compressor clutch coil is bad. This would require replacing the AC compressor clutch which would cost a little over $200 for the clutch and $944 with labor and shop supplies & time...........NOT gonna happen! That is TOTAL BS!

What I did do is buy a Denso compressor from Rock Auto under the same but upgraded Honda part# for $293 plus $10 shipping. The Denso compressor come with a new clutch. I will keep the old compressor and find a cheaper OEM replacement clutch to keep as a spare since it only has about 39,000 miles on it.

My "future son in law" I believe is a ASE certified mechanic and he tells me he can help me out either installing the compressor or find someone who has the freon recovery/charge machine who can that will not charge me an arm and both legs to install it.

I was hoping it was the tri-pressure safety switch on the high side line but NOOOOOOOOOOO! That would be too easy. LOL!
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EL Vap133

Wow, that's why I call them the Stealership, that's an insane labor rate! Glad you found out what the problem was.