My 92 prelude SI air would run sometimes and not others. It might run well for a couple of days then start blowing hot air. This may last 20 seconds or a couple of days. I first changed from R-12 to R134 thinking the freon was low. Still had the same problem. My controls to the vents to floor to defrost etc. would also only work randomly.
Then I read this and a couple of other sites to get ideas. I took my control panel out and looked over the solder joints and didnt see anything wrong with them. My wife does exactly this type of work. She took it to work and looked at it under the microscope and found that many of the solder joints had fractures. She resoldered and cleaned the joints that were OK and I reinstalled and all my problems were sovled. I hope this will help anyone else who is having similar problems. If anyone has any problems email me.

Mlevinson

 

many forth gens have this problem with the climate control panel

 

Nice! Great 1st post. What does your wife do for a living if you dont mind me asking? That's a pretty cool thing, I wish my girlfriend was that useful, hah.

 

She works for an electronics company. She inspects many differnt parts which they recieve from vendors. Some of them are pc boards. Some of thier products go into the mercedes to smooth out the ride, robotics that are used in manufacuring, and rides at amusement parks similar to the nascar simulator. Supposedly some of thier parts can be made to be extremly accurate. It is all kind of foriegn to me. It does sound sort of cool.

 

I was just looking into doing this myslef. I have been reading how this is done, just have to get up the energy to take apart the center console to get to the climate control.

Was it tough? were the broken joints obvious? I have no experience soldering but my girlfriend has taken classes toward her degree and knows how to, do you think its something she can do?

My buttons dont work for airflow direction and sometimes my AC doesnt come on unless I hit the dash So any info would be awesome cause I wanna fix this annoyance!

 

It took me about 45 minutes to get it out. It took about 2 hrs to get it back in. The hardest part was petting my rca cables back in my head unit. The guy who installed the deck left the cables so short that it was a real pain in the ace to get them hooked back up. Also the dial for the vents that allow you to close off the air were a big pain. I tried for about 20 minutes and couldnt get them hooked back up.
I got all of the directional air flow parts easily. Other than that it was pretty simple. Assuming that you have some mechanical abilities.
Looking at the joints I thought they looked a little rough. But with the naked eye or a magnifing glass they looked okay to me. My wife said that you have to have a microscope or possibly a very very stong magnafying glass. She said if your girlfriend has taken classes that she would understand this. It needs to be reflowed under low heat with a fine tip, no flux. Still clean the board when shes done. If shes not very confident my wife said you should take the board to something like a TV repair shop . Mine would also come on and off if I would bang on the dash. A couple of time when it was real hot I beat the crap out of it. She told me to stress the fact that if your girlfriend isnt extremely confident have someone else do it. The board could get messed up beyond repair. It shouldnt cost much it only took her about 20 minutes under a microscope. If theres anything else you need to know, I dont mind helping you all I can.
MLevinson

 

Thanks a lot for the info, I shall tackle this problem as soon as I am annoyed enough to take action. (which will probably be shortly)

I installed my CD player myself so I'm sure it will come out easily (but if anyone is reading this and plans on stealing it from me, just let me know and I'll give it to you, it only costed me $20 and its not worth your time/my damaged door or window)

I have also disconnected the cable for the hot/cold vent so I know what a PITA it can be to try to get back on...

I have faith in my girlfriend... her dad owns a welding shop (no I havnt taken advantage of this but I have the option ) and she has very steady hands. I'll ask her the extent of her knowledge but judging from some of the projects she's made and the grades she's recieved on them, I think she'll be able to get it done.

I may come up with a few more questions along the way to shoot at ya and I appreciate the information you've given.

-Adam