I have a 95 dx hatch with a/c in S Florida. The a/c in my civic isn't working up to my expectations. I've had a high pressure line replaced and the system vac. and recharged. I've inspected and cleaned the condensor. Still it works no where near what I believe it should. If I'm moving it's better, in traffic or at a light it suffers. That's why I was considering installing a higher cfm fan. Do you think it would be worth the time and cost. It looks like the fan will have to be removed from the bottom of the car unless I break the a/c system open again. Has anyone done this and what's the larged size fan I can squeeze in there. I've been looking on ebay, it seems to be the best location for deals on fans.

 

What year and model?

 

Your kidding right?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Spins &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Your kidding right?</TD></TR></TABLE>
Sorry, didn't see it. I think the fan on the 5th gen is part of the mounting for the condensor, be kind of hard to replace it. You may be able to add a pusher fan to the front of it though. Still that shouldn't be needed, the a/c in those work fairly well.

 

It simply unbolts. It has alot of them (bolts) but it can be removed. I may have to make something to assist in the mounting of the condensor. The a/c lines are in the way if I try to remove it from the top. I unbolted the fan while I was cleaning the condensor. Just from looking at aftermarket replacement fans they seem to push or pull between 800-900cfm. I was thinking of getting a slightly larger fan the pulls almost twice that. So it will definately have more air moving through it in traffic and stop lights. I had also thought about hooking up a water sprayer or fogger infront of the condensor. I have or will have my Cf duckbill spoiler back soon and no longer use the rear sprayer. So I thought I could reroute that line to the front and add a mister head.

 

I just don't think any of that is going to help much. As long as the condensor is doing it's job, (changing gas into liquid) getting it cooler isn't going to do much.

 

I would be interested in some info on this topic. The first two settings on the a/c are useless here in florida.

 

Its funny. Here in NH, yesterday it was in the 90's and sooooo many people stopped in complaining about there A/C doesnt seem to be blowing cold. I bet today (70 degrees) they thought differently. Heat Soak + old a/c system + old car + hot as hell = buy a new car if you care that much. Anyhow good luck

 

is it possible that the compressor is going. that would be consisitent with the fact that it works best when the car is at speed.

 

I don't really know but the people on the forum at http://www.ackits.com might

Greg

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Ej6B20 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I would be interested in some info on this topic. The first two settings on the a/c are useless here in florida.</TD></TR></TABLE>

damn, that's hot!

 

Well I currently have a 95 240sx auto with a SR20DET swap. The a/c in this car is great. It's just as old as my civic. I know with age the condensers get dirty and clogged etc. and this hurts the performance of the system. Even in the 240 I can feel a difference in the air temp coming out of the vents when moving and when sitting still. But it performs good just sitting still. I believe my 240's air is colder with the car sitting still than the civic moving at speed. And there doesn't seem to be too much air blowing out of the vents on the civic anyway. With the a/c on setting 4 (high) it feels like others cars on setting 3. I was just thinking if a purchased a higher cfm fan and pulled in more air through the condensor this would help out the system at least at lights and such.
How would I know if the compressor is going? I mean the system is working, to my knowledge no leaks. I took care of that problem. When I had the system charged the tech stated everything looked good. The compressor wasn't running at a higher than normal high side pressure. The compressor isn't making any weird noises.
The civic is my daily driver car the 240 is my play car, or now it mostly parked. I can't afford to drive the 240 everyday with the way gas prices are. She takes premium and is thirty compared to the civic. I lost my good paying job and now I'm working a dead end job just to pay the bills, making like a third of my pay.
The civic is parked right now the radiator gave up the ghost a few days ago. Just waiting for a new one to arrive. I just don't want to waste money on something that's not gonna work or help. I guess I will have to be the Guinea pig and try it.

 

Yea do that i have an similar problem! Let me know if blow like in the 40-50
degree

 

Once I get the radiator problem corrected. I have a simply thermometer I plan on checking the temperature of the air coming out of the vents while moving and sitting still. Then when I replace the fan I'll compare and see if there's any improvement at all. While attempting to max prior speeds, time with car sitting still and outside temperatures etc.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Spins &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Once I get the radiator problem corrected. I have a simply thermometer I plan on checking the temperature of the air coming out of the vents while moving and sitting still. Then when I replace the fan I'll compare and see if there's any improvement at all. While attempting to max prior speeds, time with car sitting still and outside temperatures etc.</TD></TR></TABLE>
Try holding it at about 2000 rpms while sitting still. See if it makes any difference in the vent temp.

 

No tach on my car. But I believe when a car is idling there is valve in the system which is suppose to create more pressure to simulate the effect when the car is driving at normal or higher rpms or something. Or maybe I misread the info somewhere. Anyway I'll try higher cfm fan out and see if there is any improvement. I'll report back with my results. But I welcome any and all advice.

 

No, there is no valve that is supposed to make more pressure at idle. The compressor only compresses so much, and with the limited amount of air the condenser fan will pull over the coils, it doesn't work so great when sitting still. higher RPMs and more moving air makes the system work better (You know all an AC system does it move heat from inside to outside, right?).

 

I wasn't for sure about a valve. Thanks for the info. I conducted a little test the other day. I'm seeing 53-58 degree's coming out of my a/c vents. This was after I had driven my car around for awhile and allowed the interior to cool down a little. Depending on if I was sitting in traffic or driven around between 40-50mph. This was with the a/c set on high/ rec. I was reading about 80-83 degrees in the driver seat with the temp gauge sitting in my lap. I thought the temp would be lower but I had three of the 4 vents aimed in my direction. None of the vents where blowing directly towards the sensor in my lap. I used a simple elec. gauge which has a probe sensor and base sensor. So with the flick of a switch I can see either temp readings. If I selected the #3 setting on the a/c blower the air temp dropped alittle but the cars interior would start to heat up as shown in the temp sensor in my lap. I checked the outside temp after the test using the same sensor I used to test the air temps in my car. In the shade I was seeing 96 degrees and in the sun was like 107 degrees. Now I need to get a better fan and see if there are any improvements.

 

There are a few things that could be the issue.
1. Did you replace the dryer when you replaced everything else? Replacing the dryer is important because it acts as a moisture trap. Also, you can never drain the oil out of the dryer 100%, so you never know how much is in the system.
2. Did you drain the compressor? Again, you need to make sure you have an exact amount of oil in the system
3. Did you "flush" the evaporator/expansion valve? If so, might want to look at a new expansion valve, those can NOT be flushed. Evap can be flushed if expansion valve is replaced.

You may have the following wrong with your system:
1. Too much oil in the system
2. Too much refrigent in the system
3. Not enough refrigent in the system
4. Weak compressor.
Numer 1 you can't really check for, unless you empty out the entire system and replace the dryer. 2-4 you can check with AC gauges, but you really have to know the pressures and temperatures to get an accurate guess there.

If you didn't do the work yourself, which I suspect a shop did, they probably cut corners. AC can be some pretty picky stuff.

 

Let us know the results

 

You will never get a cold car out of 134a. R12 is the coldest for cars. But they quit making it for cars .

 

Correction, most new cars have taken into account for R134a and taken measures to freeze you out of the car. True, a system designed for R12 doesn't work well with R134a.

I will attempt to put a 99-00 civic condensor in my civic (if the lines and everything fits), as I think that is the major change between R134a and R12 systems. I know the evaporator won't fit, that is the other major change.

 

I had a shop replace the line,vac and recharge the system. They didn't change any parts except for the h/p line and nothing was flushed. The refrigent level is correct. Having the oil level perfectly correct would seem hard to do. Changing the expansion valve and dryer is something I'll have to look into. I'm going to call around and get some prices on these parts. Does anyone know what the average temps should be coming out of the vents? I know it will differ depending on the outside temps.

 

hey man to me it looks good. An ac system is only suppose to give max temp. drop of 30deg from the outside temp. so if the outside is 107 and your ac is 80 its working ok. if you want to check temp, put the temp gauge inside the center vent. Put ac to max and recirculate have fan on full. It sounds like you might have a low charge. Did you pressure test the system for leaks? maybe fan isnt turning on? does your compressor turn on? On a full carge (on my acura el) of 1.4lbs of r134a your compressor should cycle on-off 3 times in one minute. approx. is your system r12? if so did you do conversion&gt;r134a? Buy the way there is no switch which raises ac pressure on a txv system which civics uses. There is a high pressure switch which cycles on&gt;off the compressor if the pressure is to high between the evap and compressor. usually happens if to much redrigerent in system. best of luck hope this helps. Dont get the bigger fan keep looking for the prob.

 

Yeah that's what I did. I put the sensor in the center vent and checked the temperature there and in my lap. System is charged, a/c fan is working, compressor turns on or it would blow hot air. Car is a 95 and is a 134a system from Honda.