Long story short, after recent torrential Illinois rains, one street I frequently travel flooded. I had no idea until I was right up on it (no street lamps) and I went right into it. It was deep enough to submerge the lower 1/4 of the car (enough to where i now have water in my fogs and it ripped the pass. side bumper out of the mounts) and submerged the a/c compressor.

After driving out of it, I turned on the a/c to clear the condensation off my windows (was not on at time of submersion) and it blew ambient temperature air the rest of the way home. I popped the hood and the pulley spins freely but the clutch does not engage. I have not checked the fuse yet but literally 12 hours prior the a/c was working great.

I suppose my question is, how sensitive is the compressor assembly to water? Do you think I'm looking at a rebuild or a whole new compressor?

 

Maybe try unplugging the compressor fan from the harness and dry the connectors. Check the connectors for arcing and when dry, reconnect and try it again. The fuse is a good thing to look at too. The harness should be "weather tight", but that doesn't mean you can scuba dive with it.

 

I went out and opened the low pressure line slightly and its still charged.

I was looking in the fuse box and did not see an a/c fuse, and I currently do not have the space or my tools to check the coil continuity.

I'm going to bring it to a known reputable shop tomorrow. I didn't see any loose wiring but when the splash guard bent back, it or the rush of water might have knocked something out of whack. Hopefully it's an easy fix. I'm just lucky nothing else was damaged beyond putting the bumper back on and draining the fog lights out (bumper is just a tad misaligned, but whatever).

 

Maybe the compressor clutch got wet?

 

What year and trim is your Civic?

Generally, there is an under-hood fuse and an under-dash fuse protecting the A/C compressor clutch relay.

One end of the spectrum, electrical connector to A/C compressor is wet and just need cleaning and drying, or simply fuse blew due to an intermittent short that occurred. Other end of the spectrum, could be compressor damaged, etc.

 

2008 si.

Issue was traced back to possibly a bad pcm. I called my insurance company and they may cover it due to it being weather related.

The shop tested everything and the ac was working fine when jumped, but when the pcm was read it was giving them very off readings (such as the coolant temp being almost 300* at the radiator, or something like that). So next stop is Honda after I get the ok from insurance. At least illl get the bumper fixed as well.

 

Yeah, on the 2008 the PCM is in the engine compartment. That would be great if the insurance company covers it.

 

yeah, I think they will but my issue now is getting honda to replace it on my time so I can get in there and release the flashpro from the old computer while at the dealer, then lock it to the new one afterwards.