My wife's 2010 Fit Sport (230K) started having issues with the AC maybe 2 or 3 months ago. She said the air was no longer cold. Brought it to the dealer (Autofair Honda) and they recharged the system. Air was blowing nice and cold and everything seemed great. Fast forward to a couple of days ago and she texted me to say that her AC stays cold for maybe 30 seconds at a time and the gradually starts to get warm. (50 mile commute one way) If she turns off the system for a bit and then turns it back on. it repeats the cycle. Starts out cold and then after a spell it gets warm again. Air flow does not seem to diminish, it just doesn't stay cold


I took a look under the hood and confirmed that fans turn on and the compressor is running. The compressor does make a little bit of a racket but not unlike the noise my 2003 Accord one makes. The silver tube that runs off of the compressor back up towards the firewall (sorry don't know the technical name but it's the one that is supposed to be cold, on top left hand side looking at car from front) starts out to be very cold and then the longer it runs starts to get less cold.

I have an appointment this Saturday with a different dealer (Peters Honda)

Could it be that Autofair jacked up the recharge somehow? i took a long trip with her to the Cape this past weekend and the AC seemed to be blowing cool and fine the whole trip. Temps here have been very hot and humid...Florida like


Ideas or just guesses until the techs look at it Saturday?

 

 

When it is not blowing cold air out the vent, open the hood and look at the compressor again. Is it still engage? Our daughter Fit would start out blowing ice cold air but after 15 - 20 minutes of driving it will stop. When I was driving her car and it happens to me I stopped and open the hood and look at the compressor. It was no longer engage so it wasn't turning. I saw a Youtube video in which the clutch plate clearance (aka air gap) was too great for the magnetic coil on the compressor to draw the clutch plate into the pulley. I did what the Youtube poster did and the Fit has been blowing ice cold air out the vent all summer.

 

Yes, the compressor is still spinning when the air gets less cold

 

The only other thing that I can think of is the charge is too low and the evaporator is icing up. Once the evaporator ice up, hot air can no longer pass through the evaporator to give up its latent heat. Instead, the hot air flows around the evaporator coil. On a car you don't want the evaporator to ice up, unlike your home refrigerator that needs the freezer to get below freezing. Unless you have a very old refrigerator, most refrigerator nowadays are frost free. They have a heating element that will heat up to melt the ice that forms on the evaporator.

The correct way to recharge a system is to recover the refrigerant to determine how much refrigerant was in the system. Adding refrigerant to a system is just a hit or miss. Like the Youtube garage that posted the video. He recovered all the refrigerant and from that, he was able to determine the system was low. He added back the refrigerant by weight as specified for that Honda Civic.

 

Well today it blew just hot air and the compressor is not longer engaging. The return tube that was cold before is hot now.

Think it could be what is one that video? My guess is the dealer will not make that repair and go straight to replacing the compressor (most expensive repair)

Will the compressor still engage if the system is out of refrigerant?

Any other ideas so that I may be able to sound like I know a little on what I'm talking about?


D-Day is 8:30am tomorrow morning at the dealer

 

Unless the compressor is engaging the AC will not work. you can turn the ignition switch to the run position and with the engine not running push the AC switch until the light comes on. With a long stick or pry bar or screw driver give the clutch plate a nudge like Eric O did in the video. If the clutch plate get suck onto the pulley, you just found the reason why the AC isn't working.

A low refrigerant charge on some cars may prohibit the compressor from engaging. If you have a set of gauges or one of those charge refill can with a gauge you can see what the static charge is. It should be above 50 psi.

 

Good video. Thanks.

 

Send the wife to the stealer. They love talking whatcha call it and thingamajig with the ladies. You can ask them what is the static reading of the system when they hook up their gauges. This way you will know if the system is low on refrigerant. Static reading should be above 50 psi. If they do get the compressor to engage you can ask them what is the low and high side reading. Low side should be 35-40 psi and high side should be 180 to over 200psi depending on the ambient temperature.

 

So went to the dealer and they reported back to us that the compressor was not running due to not enough pressure/refrigerant in the system. The did a evac/refill and also suggested a new serpentine belt (which I had them do) I asked if they detected any leaks in the system and they said no. Hmmmm

Well so far so good, I guess we will know in a couple of months if there is a leak or not. I didn't see the replies till just now so i wasn't able to ask those questions.


In other news, I'm back in the Honda family as I bought a 2018 Civic Hatchback EX as I stuck around after my wife took her car home. Pretty good deals on the 2018's, I couldn't resist (My 2015 Charger R/T was boning me to the tune of 500 a month is gas)

MSRP 24145
Sale price 20,998 minus Military discount, great trade in vale for the Charger etc = very happy camper

 

 

Well that was short lived....AC keeps crapping out...will run cold for a bit then back to warm air grrrr

Just got back from the dealer and this is the verdict according to them:


"Test Drove vehicle and confirmed A/C started blowing warm. Inspected compressor clutch, compressor clutch inoperable Swapped compressor relay for known good relay, no change, noticed compressor clutch relay hot. Tested for power at the compressor. Compressor getting power but inoperable.

Recommend replacing compressor and compressor relay."



Then in the followup notes they say: Replace A/C Compressor and A/C Compressor Clutch Relay (A/C Compressor clutch rusted and intermittent inoperable)

They originally quoted almost $1900 for Honda parts, car probably isn't even worth 1500. Aftermarket came in to the tune of $1094


I'm a little confused where they say replace compressor relay above and in the closing notes about the compressor clutch relay and the clutch being rusted.


This sound plausible? Price seems crazy to me but then again I've never dealt with an AC repair

 

Well personal I would give a a shot of replacing the the pump my selft with a reman from Rock Auto. Then take it in to have the system properly evacuated and filled.
the relay is an the first thing I would swap, being that's easier.

 

The cheapest fix would be to check the air gap between the clutch plate and pulley and if it is excessive I would zip off the nut to the clutch plate and remove any shims that you find behind the clutch plate. The clutch is getting juice, but the clutch plate is not engaging. Sound like an air gap problem. See the Youtube video that I link to in my previous comment about what could be the problem.

 

It's not that hard of a DIY repair. Took me 15 minutes to do the repair. 10 minutes to jack up the car and place the car on jack stands. A couple of minutes to remove the front tire and pull the plastic retainer pins to remove the plastic shield and about a minute to zip off the 14mm nut with my cordless impact driver. Remove the shim and reinstall everything back. AC been blowing ice cold air all summer long. If the dealer doesn't want to do it find a mechanic that will do it. Better to pay a mechanic for about a 1/2 hour work then to pay a dealer 1900 to replace the compressor.

 

That is the same thing I was thinking.

Other possibilities are:

1. Intermittent relay
2. Leaked out a little R-134 since last recharge and evaporator is freezing up. This is most likely your problem. I have posted here many times how to check this with a digital meat thermometer from Walmart housewares section for $10.00.

My fear for you is that they replace the compressor for over $1000 and that is not the problem. Before you let them replace it. Demand a FULL money back guarantee if replacing the compressor does not fix your problem. Get it in writing BEFORE you let them do the work. Make sure you get and keep the removed compressor.

As you can see I have my doubts that the compressor is really your problem. It is impossible for me to remotely prove it one one or the other.

 

Hi, could you eleborate on the Static 50psi?
Was it measured on the Low Side cap?
I did check the Low side with car off and found about 12psi, but I did not check the High Side.
Also, my A/C system is totally inert, with the exception of the green LED on the dashboard button.
Totally inert meaning: engine on with interior fan @ 2:
no clicks from the 3 relays under the battery, no A/C nor radiator fan engaging, no A/C clutch engagement although I can spin it manually with engine off.
Have inspected the two 7.5A fuses under the steering wheel, and have removed all 3 relays under the headlight and swapped them around. (I've lost track of them and am concerned the radiator cooling fan might not engage and car could overheat??)

But, if the 12psi of static coolant pressure at the Low side nipple means that the system won't even try to turn on,
then I will try to charge it up more.
I have one of those Redtek 12a recharge kits with the guage.
Hopefully car will accept the charge even if the compressor will not engage.
Was hoping to hear some advice or feedback before trying this, thanks!

P.S. this is my first post on this forum as the Fit has been quite reliable till now.
Oops, that reminds me, did have stuck EGR issue that caused car to stall dangerously.
I have since put a blocking plate on EGR valve, which causes CEL, but less risk of stalling.
On another video a guy mentioned that A/C might not work if there's a CEL, could
that be the problem too? Wife usually drives this car but it's been in storage
for months due to Covid work from home, therefore cannot be certain if she
noticed her A/C was cold or not--she could have been fooled by just the circulation
from the fan! i.e. maybe the EGR CEL had disabled her A/C ever since I blocked
the EGR, but I only noticed lack of A/C when I test drove it myself today.

 

To answer your question about static pressure the temperature pressure relationship for R134a almost matches ambient temperature. So if it was say 80 degrees outside static pressure would be 87 degrees, 90 degrees pressure would be 104 psig. Just Goggle pressure temperature chart for R134a for more details. If you are reading only 12 psig static pressure you have a leak. CEL from egr and your a/c issues are not related.

 

Thanks for the reply.
So I did recharge it this morning with car cold and while the outside temp was only 16C (60F),
and initial static pressure was even lower, only about 5psi, compared to 12psi when car was hotter yesterday from driving.

Happily the A/C is now blowing very cold, but perhaps the single 6oz (170g) can of
12A coolant was not enough. (the can claims 425g/15oz equivalent in R134a).

With the A/C running it ended up maxxing at about 40psi, but dipping
to about 20psi, at which point the compressor clutch would disengage.
This cycling was fairly rapid too, with the compressor only staying on for
about 5-8 sec before dropping to 20psi and then taking perhaps another 5-8 sec
to return to 40psi before the compressor clutching On again...

In some of the videos I watched it looks like other folks had enough coolant
so that the compressor would just stay on constant at around 30-40psi.

Note however that the outside temp was 16C/60F, and the car wasn't
that hot either, had been parked overnight and only running a few minutes
while I did this recharging...
I suppose when it's hotter out then these pressures would all rise and then the compressor might not cycle as much(?)

I am going to pick up another can of refrigerant, which I might try to "share"
with my other car which is actually 20yrs old but never needed a recharge!
The 20y/o car must be a bit low by now though, and it's A/C doesn't feel
as cold as the Fit did this morning after this recharge...

 

60F ambient should be about 57 psig static pressure. So like I mentioned before you have a leak. You need to address the leak for a permanent fix. Yes, pressures and outside temperatures are relative to one another and compressor will cycle longer also idle speed affects compressor run time.
Car AC will leak some refrigerant over time and after 20 years that’s normal. All cars have very slight leakage through compressor shaft seal.
Proper way to recharge is to reclaim, vacuum, verify vacuum holds and no leaks, then weigh in proper charge. So it’s impossible for a diy person to do this by the book for the most part. You can just try doing your method but very easy to overcharge a system and create even more issues.