I have an 00 Accord 5 speed with 257k miles and am wondering why my A/C blows FREEZING cold for a bit and then blows warm for 5-10 secs and then back to freezing cold. Could it just need a/c coolant or a recharge? Any help is appreciated on this issue before I take it to a shop. I stay reasonably cool even on a HOT day, but I would like to get it to stay cold.

 

I'm no AC expert by any means, so take what i say with a grain of salt.
There are several AC experts on here that can provide much better help than I can, but here goes:

Sounds to me like it might be low on r134. Most will tell you there has to be a leak somewhere for it to lose refrigerant, but I find it extremely hard to believe that after 257k miles, it wouldn't need to be recharged at least once. Nothing lasts forever in my opinion.
You could go buy a r134a recharge kit at AutoZone that comes with a pressure gauge showing when it should be full. Follow the instructions that come with the kit. Check the pressure before adding refrigerant. You DO NOT want to overcharge the system.

I experienced a similar problem with my old 95 V6 before I got rid of it. It would fluctuate between cold & not cold. I recharged it once after checking the pressure and finding it to be low. The recharge lasted about a year and it stopped blowing cold again. I recharged it again and traded it in. Of course there was a leak somewhere, but r134 is cheap anyway. I only had to recharge it once a year so i figured it wasn't worth it to me to repair the leak.

 

I would not blindly charge the a/c system, because the pressure may be fine. Overcharging the system is dangerous. You really would need to attach a pressure manifold on the system to read the high and low side pressure to figure out if you are low on freon.

What I would do is look at the compressor clutch plate. It is a metal plate that sits on the outside of the a/c compressor pulley. It engages the a/c compressor pulley and spins at the same rate as the pulley when the a/c is turned on. It doesn't spin when the a/c is off.

Start the car and run the a/c. When the a/c stops cooling, open the hood and see if the plate is spinning. Post what you find. Depending on your results, we can help you diagnose further.

 

does not sound low on freon,,,if it were low it would not blow freezing as he described ,,,,,,,, chk a/c clutch gap, if too wide repair accordingly......when it blows hot chk to see if there is power at the compressor wire ..
it sounds like an electrical issue ,thermoswitch, relay, pressure switch, poor connection etc etc ,

 

OK so I'm more than likely wrong.....
Do a search for "AC clutch gap" or "clutch gap." I remember seeing a lot of posts on that topic. That will get you past dh's test #1