Hey guys so I have been a long time lurker here and have learned so much, but I cant seem to figure out whats wrong with my 96 accord AC issue.

So my car has been without AC for several years, but recently had it vacuumed out and put freon in. The system has been without freon for several years as well so I didn't need it evacuated.

Vacuum went smooth, no leaks. Freon (21oz) went in, clutch and fans turned on. Air was getting cool then it stopped; clutch and fans. High and low side equalized at about 100 PSI on the manifold. So I thought crap might have a clutch issue. Ran diagnostics. Jumped the clutch and it kicked in. Clutch relay good. Radiator and condenser fan relays/fuses all good.

So I started the car up and let it warm up and the fans turned on. I turn on the AC and it starts working as well! But as soon as the fans turn off the clutch also disengages and its back to blowing warm air.

What could cause that? I find it so weird that only when the car is warmed up enough that the fans turn on that that's when the AC only works. Its usually the other way around. Has anyone else experienced this? Please help!

 

So after more diagnosis led me to the AC thermostat. I jumped the connector between the blu/yel and blu/red, started the engine and turned on the AC. It worked! So knowing that the AC thermostat was the issue, now I had to figure out how am I going to replace this? I thought well I better check if the thermistor was still good. So I cut the leads and hooked up my multimeter. Started at around 10k ohms before turning on the AC and slowly climbed higher as the cold air was flowing through the evaporator. Thermistor is still good! All I need now is a good AC thermostat module and solder the leads back and all without opening the evaporator! Phew. Hopefully this will help someone if ever they come across a similar issue.

Opened up the AC module and found a transistor was blown.

 

I'm going to work on my AC soon, I will keep this in mind. Its always nice when people post what they found when fixing an issue.

 

Thank you, I can't agree with you more! My AC is working perfectly now after replacing the AC thermostat. I saw plenty of intact AC thermostats on all the accords I found at the junkyard. I assume its not a common failure.
Now my evaporator drain is clogged and leaking on the passenger side floor. Time to unclog it!