Hello all appreciate your help in advance. Purchased a 2008 Honda Accord coupe EXL V6 with nav a little less than a year ago for my kid who will be driving at full-time in a little less than a year. Did not drive it full time until about a week ago but never had issues when I did drive it. However about four or five days ago I was running an errand and upon starting the car noticed it wasn't blowing cold. About a minute later down the road I press the AC button to manually turn it off and back on and it worked fine. Stopped at the Home Depot, did my thing got back in the car drove home no problem. Later that day took my kid to Driver's Ed and it blew cold until we got to a stoplight sitting idle and then suddenly started blowing warm air. Messed with it for a couple minutes this time before it finally caught and started blowing cold again. Basically for a day or two it just kept randomly blowing cold or not blowing cold never the same situations twice. Stopped at an auto parts store and he recommended charging the AC. Bought a can of AC Pro with the pressure gauge. Got home and turned everything on AC full power recirculating. Let it run for a couple minutes then attach the hose to the low port and it was reading about 35 to 38 pounds on a 95 degree day. Charged it till it got up to about 51 and let it run for a bit . Long story short we haven't been able to get the thing working and the pressure readings are so inconsistent. This morning the AC would not turn on the entire trip to Driver's ed class and then home I got home let the car run for several minutes with everything on in the compressor would not turn on so I put the rest of the refrigerant from my AC Pro can in and now with the car running and everything blowing AC on fans full recirculation on the pressures are 10 on low and 50 on the high but the compressor was kicking on so I turned it off just to make sure I don't burn anything up LOL. My thought is maybe grab another can of just plain refrigerant and use the actual 134a pressure gauges to make sure I fill it correctly. Any thoughts?

 

Always need to be careful when adding refrid to the system......clutch gap too large not allowing the compressor to run, a relay on the "fritz" and working when it wants to.

Simple question - when it acts up, not blowing cold - are both fans on the rad running?

Also for giggles, these have a self test of the HVAC unit that you could check to see if the system is detecting any issues.

 

Never add R-134A unless you have an a/c manifold that can read high and low pressures on the a/c system and you verified that the high and low pressures indicate a low charge. Adding R-134a blindly is dangerous due to over-pressure in the system that can damage otherwise working a/c components.

Look at the clutch plate on the a/c compressor. It should spin with the pulley when the a/c is turned on. It should not spin when the a/c is turned off. Is the clutch plate spinning when you do not have a/c? Poorman said this in the previous post, but both fans should turn on when you turn the a/c on inside the car.

 

hey guys, thanks for the response. Yes, both fans run when a/c is turned on. Clutch does not engage when a/c is turned off ,if that is what you asking PAhonda...when a/c is turned on, clutch does engage but no cold air.

FYI I bought 2 new relays for the fusebox in the engine bay. will check pressures and go from there. I didnt think I was charging "blindly" with the attached pressure valve.

UPDATE:
Replaced the AC compressor clutch relay and condenser fan relay, used plain R134a to charge, it is holding charge and blowing cold...revved the engine, ac seemed to blow colder but I might be imagining...it's 81 degrees and the pressure is 35 low/140 high if i remember correctly so think it needs a little more refrigerant ...also @poorman212, the self test of hvac, i will still do that tomorrow, thanks i had no idea

 

Its not a good idea to add R-134a without reading the high and low pressure and use the temperature at the vents with the outside temperature to see what is going on with the a/c. I usually reply like that to warn others who may find this thread to not blindly add R134a. Plus adding R134a to a fully charged system may make this harder to diagnose.

If your clutch plate is spinning with the compressor pulley when the a/c is turned on, then the problem is likely in the system and not an electrical problem with relays or the a/c switch inside the car. So you got a 50 psi on the high side?

 

Thanks again for your response. yeah I hear you. it would spin occasionally, and at times not at all. should have been more clear. it did engage, but it also would stop. I drove my son to drivers ed this morning. blew cold start to finish.

 

Before doing any more work on the a/c, you need to determine if the clutch is not spinning when your a/c blows warm air.

 

When the AC is turned on, it's supposed to cycle on & off. The percentage on/off depends on the temperature and humidity and how much air is flowing through the cabin.

If it is switched on, don't expect the compressor to be spinning 100%. But it IS supposed to spin often-enough to keep it cool.