Hello,

My 1997 Honda Accord is the 6-cylinder version with power steering, automatic transmission, ABS, fuel injection, cruise control, and 175,000 miles.

Recently the air conditioning became intermittent.

When it works, which is most of the time, it works great, tons of cooling, as it has always been. But, sometimes it just stops cooling – for no reason I can find. I know that the first thing to do is hope it breaks and stays broken – that’s the easiest one to fix. Second best is that the problem occurs on some sort of pattern. Well, in my case neither is happening. I’ve tried and tried to detect a pattern but no luck. Once I thought it had to do with moving slowly for an extended period such as in traffic jams but the next time it died I was doing 70 on the highway. Sometimes it comes back in a 3-5 minutes, once it took close to an 20 minutes. Another time I thought it was dead for good but when I started the car after a day at work I got all the cool air a boy could want.

So far, it has always come back by itself so I’ve ruled out Freon problems or burst hoses, etc. If those were the problem it would have stayed broken. I don’t notice any electrical disturbances either. Nor have I noticed the car hesitating as if the compressor had gone off line though that’s still a possibility since the Honda does that very gently and it might not be noticed

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Stevan

 

First thing I would check out is the wiring for your A/C since you indicate that when it works it works great. It could be something as simple as a high or low pressure switch or a cracked or loose connection in your wirirng. When your A/C isn't blowing cold does the compressor run or cycle on and off? If the compressor is not working at all I would start with the clutch and work your way back.

 

I agree, i'm guessings its a wiring issue or a pressure switch malfuntion.

 

it is an electrical intermittent problem............i have seen a lot of relays and thermostatic switches the 1s located in the evap act the same way ,,

now i am not saying that it is ur problem cause it should be proparly diagnosed before u start replacing parts ..also chk the a/c clutch gap if too wide it will shut down on u intermitt as well gap should be .012-.024

 

It could very well stop working while the clutch is still engaged, you will need to let us know this info too along with pressures if you can get them or at least low side pressure. It is possible that the sytem is freezing internally, moisture in the system is a major problem and very hard to remove. Would you say that cold or warm that the air flow out of the vents is still good and strong if the fan is in a higher speed position. Less airflow and the evaperator is freezing up literally on the outside of the evaperator. If airflow is still strong but now getting warm then the expansion valve could be freezing up internally or just malfunctioning internally but pressures will be needed for this. It Could be an evaperator fin temperature probe malfunction and that will need a multimeter to diagnose with some further help from this thread. Let us know what you can please.

 

My apologies for resurrecting a very old post, but just curious if there was ever a solution to this issue?

 

I had a problem similar to this on my 95 cx..the problem was an intermittant short at the control panel inside the car...Billbert