Hey guys,

the A/C on my Civic VIII stopped working. I did some googling and found that supposedly the relays can go bad. I checked this by shorting the relay while the car was off and heard the clunk that means the compressor engages. I bought a new relay and changed it out. However, even now, the compressor does not engage, when the A/C is turned on. I can't hear the clunk when turning on the A/C either. Neither when the motor is off, or on. I wanna try shorting the relay while the car is running, to see if the compressor engages, but since I'm not a mechanic I'm not sure if this could cause any harm to the car or myself, so I came here to ask you guys whether it's safe to try.

Thanks!

 

It's very possible you are just low of refrigerant which would mean you have a leak. You don't want to bypass the systems fail-safe by not allowing the system to work while low on refrigerant.

 

You were right, there was no refrigerant left. Which is strange, since it was filled about a month ago. And at the time of filling, there was still some refrigerant left from before, and it hasn't been filled in years before then.