Hello.
when I turn on the AC I get an error message that says
"please operate climate control after starting engine"
and the AC wont turn on. It will turn on if I push the AUTO button, but it just blows warm air. I have a dual ac system and I also have navigation. The climate control is supposed to show up on the screen so that I can control it, but it does not. I ran a self diagnostic and code J came up saying
"a short in the driver's air mix control motor circuit"
Does anyone know how to fix this issue?

thank you!

 

The 1996 accord didn't come with stock navigation or dual climate controls. Is your navigation and a/c controls an aftermarket setup? Or is the year of your accord not a 1996?

 

I didn't realize I put 1996. My apologies. I have a 2006 accord.

 

Was any work done on the car recently?

Based on your description, you can have one root cause or possibly several. For some background, your car has one a/c compressor, but to get dual zone, you have two air mix motors each mixing hot air from the heater and cold air from the a/c to control the temperatures individually for the passenger and driver side.

When you say the a/c is not working, only stating the a/c isn't working is too vague. Please specify if no air is blowing through the vents, or if air is blowing through the vents and the temperature.

Since you have the mix motor error code, watch the video below to see how to get to the motor. See video below. I'll suggest for you to pull off those panels, start the car and change the temperature setting. Just watch for movement on the air mix motor as you change the temperature. Let us know if the arms move or not.

You should also try the heat full blast on dual zone. Let us know if air is blowing on each side. Also let us know if you can change the temperature of the heat for each side. Also try turinng on the a/c in individual zones. Let us know if cold air is coming from the passenger and/or drivers side.

Defintitely do some preliminary tests. Your root cause can be just a bad air mix motor and some other issue with the a/c compressor. Or you can have a problem with the controls on the HVAC (heating ventilation air conditioning) control panel/buttons. Just installing a replacment air mix motor might not be the actual problem and a waste of money. If you start installing parts, keep the old parts as I've seen too many new parts fail out of the box on this forum and can complicate the diagnosis.

 

When I push the AC button, I get the error message "please operate climate control after starting engine" nothing else happens. The ac controls do not show up on the screen and no air will blow out. Now when I push the AUTO button, the air will blow on both sides, but it blows warm. Also, when I start the car it does a self diagnostic and shows the AC having an issue.

 

Are you planning on fixing this yourself?

 

Yes, I am hoping to fix it myself. Maybe I'm kidding myself.

 

The driver's air mix motor controls the air temp to the driver's vents and you have a code for a short. A short could be causing the HVAC controls to not work properly, the short could have damaged the HVAC circuit board, or the HVAC circuit board is bad and giving a bad code. I wouldn't throw parts at the problem yet as this could get very expensive for the HVAC board that could be working properly.

I'd try starting with the simplest test. Since you have a heat blend code, I'd start with that. Set your climate control so you have air blowing through the vents. Hopefully you can set the temperature for heat. I'd set the temp to 5-10 degrees above the outside air temp. Feel if your passenger vent are difffernt from the drivers side on the outside. Increase the tempeature to high and do the same thing. Let us know what you find.

You can also pull those plastic panels off and unplug the electrical connector to the air mix motor shown in that youtube link. Start your car and see if the diagnostics give you a different code like open in the driver's air mix motor. You might be able to have the controls open as well.