Okay guys... here's one to troubleshoot. '96 Accord EX 4 cyl... the A/C is on the fritz... here's what I know so far...

[ol][*] Blower/controls inside all appear to work as they should[*] Compressor is running (clutch engages/disengages)[*] The system is full of refrigerant - in fact it is just into the "Alert" area on the gauge[*] I thought somebody mentioned one of the two electric fans up front being an A/C fan... I have NOT checked that as of yet...
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The system blows warm air until you reach highway speed... then it begins to get "somewhat" cool, but it never gets REAL cold...
It seems to blow MAYBE 10 degrees cooler than the outisde ambient temp and that's it...

What should I look at next?

 

Back when my car had A/C it did the same thing. There is a valve that was stuck open that was letting coolant into the heater core constanly, thus never blowing cold air (essentially the heat was stuck on). I took some needle nose pliers and tugged on the little calbe the acutates the valve and closed it shut. And there was my cold air.

May not be your problem, but definetly worth a look at. The valve is on the passenger side towards the firewall. It is in a radiator hose and has a cable attached to it that operates the valve. Hope this helps!

 

The function of the condensor fan (one of the fans at the front of the engine) is to cool the refrigerant that comes from the compressor. If the condensor fan is not blowing, a change of state will not occur and your A/C will not be cool. When you are at high way speeds, the job of you condensor is done by the movement of your car and thus causes your A/C to work somewhat. The air that is passing over the engine at highway speeds cools the condensor and causes the change of state. The cliff notes version of this is check your condensor fan, it should be running when the A/C is on especially at idle and during city driving. If the fan does not work then that is probably your problem. Is the air coming out of the vents colder in the "cold" position then when you put the air mix in the "hot" position? If this is the case your air mix is prolly working correctly.

 

chk to make sure that the heater valve opens and closes all the way properly when you turn the heater **** ,

the driver's side fan is the a/c condensor fan,, both fans should come on ,with the a./c on , or when engine reaches normal operating temperature .

What do you mean system is into the ALERT area on the gauge??? if you have a set of a/c pressure gauges, read the low and high side pressures and post them here ..

 

Wow! Lots of suggestions coming really fast and unfortunately I have to be at the ugly four-letter word right now (WORK) and can't do anything about it. I will definitely check the valve and the fan as suggested. Deserthonda... I had actually stopped by Auto Zone and bought one of those Quest sub-zero re-charge kits because I was "hoping" the system was just low on refrigerant. When I hooked up the gauge from the kit by itself the gauge was already reading just above the line between the green zone (good) and yellow zone (alert)... the gauge had psi designations on it, but I forgot to look at them. I took the kit back figuring I wouldn't need it since the system was already full. I do remember that the A/C line above the one that the gauge actually fit was HOT to the touch and the "refill" line was warm but not hot. I'm sorry guys, but I don't know the first thing about these A/C systems... wish I knew more... for now I'll check the valve and the A/C fan to make sure they are okay. And to answer somone else's question... the air mix adjustment (hot/cold) inside does work.

Thanks!

 

Agent,
You hit the nail right on the head. The condensor fan appears to be dead. I opened up the hood today with the A/C on full blast and the driver-side fan was not running at all. The question I have is this, I do not have a multimeter and I need to test to see if there is anything else wrong with that part of the system (ie. if it's the motor of the fan or if it's not getting juice to turn on)... any ideas?

 

i was working on mine the other day and that ended up being what was wrong with mine. it blows cold air now. it blows about 50 degrees.

 

try a quick test,,,,,put a/c on.. get a big screwdriver and hit the back side of the fan motor, if fan comes on ,, you got a bad motor,, if fan still does not come on,, get a test lite chk for power at plug motor at the blue/black wire and for ground at the black wire.. if you got both you got a bad motor,,
If no power chk fuse or it could be a bad relay ...

chk these out and let us know

 

Well, banging on the back of the motor didn't make it come on, but I didn't try the test light yet because I haven't had time. Is the A/C condensor fan the only thing on that circuit that would not work if a fuse was blown? Everything else on the car works like a charm.

Thanks!

 

Well,
I ran across a good deal on a new A/C condensor fan, and since the old one was rusted up pretty good, I went ahead and replaced it with a new one hoping that would solve my problem. Unfortunately, it did NOT solve anything because the fan is evidently not getting power. The radiator fan runs perfectly which led me to believe that the fuses were probably okay. It's dark and raining now so I can't check them. BUT, what's baffling me now is that I ran into something strange when changing out the fan. There are three plugs (well 4 if you count the small one with the lead to the compressor) that come off the main trunk/bundle of wires running to the A/C condensor area. One plugs into the fan, one plugs into a relay (A/C condensor fan relay I'm assuming), but the third one doesn't plug into anything. Instead, it looks like somebody at some point has "jumped" two of the pins on the plug. I will be checking the fuses tomorrow just to make sure all of them are okay... if they are all okay, does that indicate a bad relay? And what about the plug with the "jumped" pins? If my description doesn't help I'll take a picture of it and post it for help. I would REALLY like to get this thing back in full working order before Monday. We're having 100 degree temperatures down here already and with the Mississippi humidity it can be pretty unbearable at times.. [sm=icon_flaming.gif]


Thanks!
Nathan