What's up everyone! Just bought a pretty clean 05 Honda Civic LX 196,xxx mi. auto sedan for my daughter as she is turning 16 and this will be her first. I've always loved Hondas, especially from a reliability standpoint. I've worked on many throughout my earlier years also, but unfortunately, I do not have much experience with the AC system and am a novice at best with wiring. However, I have researched for the last three days and just wanted to see if I could gain some input from you guys before I go get the system charged.

So here is the rundown, I bought the car knowing the AC didn't work. You could turn the AC on inside the car and clutch wouldn't engage the compressor and no fans would run. I knew for this model that both fans would start with the AC switch pressed and also if you turn defrost on that both fans should start and clutch should engage even without AC pressed, but that didn't work. All the blower settings and heat did however. I knew that the system wasn't charged and had been evacuated. The compressor thermal protector was unhooked ( I hooked back up ). I checked all fuses and relays and just kind of followed the circuit.

Since I knew the system had been evacuated and in order to do some quick tests, I jumped the ac pressure switch wires (2p) blue and red with AC on (Green light visible) and nothing, no fans running or clutch engagement. The system should start after jumping the blue wire which is from heater control panel and red from ECM. Blue wire from heater control should be 5v which wasn't and red wire shows 12v which is correct with AC on. I was thinking it could possibly be the control panel or AC switch since the blue wire voltage was jumping 00.01-00.07v. I just went ahead and pulled the compressor clutch relay again which I tested earlier and is good and it is getting 12v twice coming in which is correct. Checked continuity from comp clutch relay to connector at the thermal protector (blu/red wire) which checked good. Thermal protector continuity checked good. Continuity from thermal protector connector to clutch (red wire) checked good. I then jumped 12v in relay for clutch and the clutch engaged. Put relay back in, no clutch engagement. The ECM is not getting the ground signal needed from the AC pressure switch. I go back to the AC pressure switch connector which is still jumped. In order to see if I could get ground signal to ECM, I grounded both the blue and red to chassis. Everything works, clutch and both fans. You can turn the AC on and off like normal. Clutch engages at defrost like it should- everything works as it should besides system not being charged and switch bypassed. Now, when I remove the chassis ground from the jumped red and blue, everything still works mind you it is still jumped and pressure switched bypassed. Why did this not work in the beginning as I haven't changed anything? Maybe grounding both the blue from control and red from ECM to chassis did something in the controller or ac switch to make it ground like it should? I believe either a bad ground in the control panel, or ac switch. I did notice some chassis grounds look rough which I am going to work on too. And BTW, these were super quick test as not to run compressor without freon. So, as of now everything will work as it should once charged as I have reconnected the pressure switch connector back to the switch itself. Besides me recharging and replacing some chassis grounds, I know that the controller or switch may be a problem in the future but everything is working for now, what would you recommend if anything, now, before I take to go get charged up? Should I replace some of the things like pressure switch since I am putting in the work now or should I check something else...? I do know it looks like the previous owner attempted to work on the AC and most likely just gave up. Should I look into the lines and all that or would whoever charges it be able to tell if pressure stays in?

I appreciate you guy's taking the time to read as I wanted to be as thorough as possible in the details. I am no longer virgin to AC's and honestly, I really don't want to have to mess with AC"s again or at least for a long while haha!