Vehicle: ’97 Accord EX, 5sp, 143K mi. I’m coming to a dead-end; help me solve this & I'll buy you a pizza & 6-pack! <U>Summary</U>: AC has worked 100% fine for years until a few weeks ago. The dash AC light illuminates but the compressor doesn’t kick in. Here’s what I’ve done: Started with checking all the fuses in the driver footwell and near the passenger firewall. All good. Next, I checked the two relays (one for the compressor and the other for the electric fan) located on the condensor fan housing, car's left side. Both function when removed and tested, but I did not detect any input voltage that would close the AC relay circuit.

With the engine running, I put a jumper wire in place of the AC relay, and the compressor kicked in, put a load on the engine and AC blew cold air (quick 15-20 second test), so it seems to work OK. I put that AC relay back and then put a jumper wire on the low pressure switch to see if that was the culprit. No luck.

After more reading, thought I might check the pressure with an auto store AC recharge kit (kind of a mickey-mouse setup…) Followed the instructions which mostly collaborated with the Haynes manual. Said the compressor had to be running to charge, so I put the jumper wire back in place of the AC relay & tried to do the charge (gauge did read low). Can of refrigerant didn’t seem to do much; didn’t hear anything going in system & weight felt the same. The <U>compressor, however, seemed to put more and more of a load on the engine until the engine nearly died</U> (orig idle RMP about 800). I pulled jumper wire off & engine returned to normal idle. While manually revving the engine a little higher (1350?)<U> I put the jumper back in place and the compressor load killed the engine</U>!

And that’s where I am. I put the relays back in place and the car runs fine, but I’m back at square 1: No AC. Hope I didn’t jack the compressor! Got any ideas? Like I said, if you can help solve it, you got yourself a pizza and 6-pack on me!

 

I don't think you have to be an expert to figure this out. The compressor is bad.
It uses bearings to spin and it isn't the first time I hear about a bearing seizing. If the compressor puts such a load that makes the engine shut off, then...... you have a bad compressor.

 

Thanks for the reply. Yes, could be that it's a bad compressor. But that doesn't really explain why the compressor won't kick when the dash A/C button is pressed since I can use a jumper in place of the AC relay and the compressor engages.

I suspect there has to be something else preventing the AC relay from closing as it should in normal operation... some sensor, wire, maybe a bad dash switch? Just trying to get a good diagnosis to know what to throw the $ at. Once I get this first part solved, then I can determine the situation with the compressor.