My firend asked me to look at his 97 accord today after work. When the car is on and in park it seems like it is idling "ok" about 600 rpm on the inside gauge, but slightly low. However, when he puts his AC on the motor starts to shake real bad and the idle goes to to less than 500 rpm. Also the AC starts to click off and on, i mean real fast, it wont stay on longer than a second. It does this back and forth, all while the motor is shaking. He says however that it cools ok when he is on the freeway. I was wondering if anyone had any other ideas. I will pull a plug wire and see if it changes any. Not sure what it could be. Just asking ahead of time. BTW it is a SOHC VTEC motor with auto tranny.

 

Maybe alternator is on its way out.

 

Think so? He has not said anything about starting problems or any thing like a uncharged battery.

 

First you should check your if your altenator is good. Just plug a voltmeter to the battery if it is reading high 13 to a low 14 it is working good. but i don't think it would be your altenator, your ac takes from your horsepower so it is normal for your idle to drop a little and for the engine to have a little shake to it. but you say it is flickering off an on. Make sure that you a/c is charged and not low, if the a/c is low it wil flicker on and off sometimes and then finally not even turn on at all. if that isn't the problem check the fuses to the compressor and check all grounds to the a/c system to make sure everything is secure.

 

I hink the AC turning off and on is just one symptom. The motor will also shake when it is put into drive. I did a quick visual inspection of the front mount and pasanger upper mount and they looked ok. I mean it really shakes once the AC is turned on though and the rpms drop bad, I am gonna hook up my scanner to it and see how bad the rpms drop. But I wont be able to check out his car until maybe late tomorrow or maybe wednesday. I really appreciate the help and sugestions. I will post back more as soon as I can get some new information.