I have a 98 Civic Ex, last month, everytime I turn my ac on, I heard something in the engine bay click on and off. It does that every 3-4 minutes. At idle, the clicking seems to be more frequent. Yesterday, my ac just stopped working. When I turn it on, all I hear is the fan turn on, but nothing else. Does anyone know what that clicking was from the engine bay, was that my compressor? Any help is appreciated.

By the way, my ac was recharged about a year ago, it was still icy cold when the a/c worked last week. I don't know if it is a bad relay or compressor.

 

man, it could be the compressor, or relays. your best bet, take it where they specialize in a/c. have them do a test on it.

 

Do anyone know how much the price for a compressor runs for?

 

your looking at a few hundred bucks even from a parts store.. the clicking is normal thats just your compressor "cycling" on and off.. if the AC was cold when it worked, and you dont hear the clicking anymore, it all depends what tools you have to diagnose it.. if you have a test light you can test the compressor by turning the AC on, and checking for power at the one wire goin to the compressor.. if you have power and the compressor is not turning on = bad compressor, if you dont have power diff problems get back to us

 

When you sit in your car, at idle, and you hit the A/C button- Do you hear a click, see the idle drop, etc? If so, your compressor IS working. If A/C still isn't blowing cold, it means you're low on freon, or one component in your a/c system has gone bad (My guess would be Expansion Valve).

If it DOESN'T come on when you hit the A/C button- here's your troubleshooting guide.

Alright, look at your compressor. There will be 1 wiring running into it that ends in a plug, that's probably fastened on your radiator or something. Unplug it. Attatch a long jumper wire to your positive terminal of your battery. Start your car.

Carefully (watch out for fans and belts and other dangerous stuff) insert other end of the jumper wire into the compressor side of the plug. If the compressor goes 'CLICK', and doesn't click back off, that means your compressor is probably good. If it doesn't click on at all, that pretty much for sure means your compressor is fudged.

If it DOES click on when you put 12 volts directly to it, and it DOESN'T come on when you hit the A/C switch on the inside, that means either -

You have basically NO freon in your A/C system. (Compressor will not kick on if it doesn't detect a certain line pressure)

You have another electrical issue, blown fuse, bad relay, bad a/c switch, etc.

 

Thanks for the help, I will try that tomorrow and get back to you. When I hit the AC button, my idle no longer drops, and there is no click. But the fans still turns on. I will try jumping a wire to the compressor to see if it will turn on.

If my fans for the condensor turns on, does that mean my compressor should have power?


Modified by AZNRAC312 at 10:57 PM 8/15/2006

 

Hey Attoir,
I dont really see 1 wire, do you mean the one thick red one? I can't see where it runs to, because there are two plugs near there, but both have more than 1 wire. Do you know what color wire I would try to jump? Got any pixs of which wire?

 

The wiring will be coming out of the A/C compressor itself. It should be a pretty small gauge wire.