i would not drive it long distance, i would park it in the driveway and let it run in park or nuetral. after about 15 minutes it should do 1 of two things... the fans will come on, or the car will begin to overheat, i wouldnt let the needle go past the half way mark, it should settle around half way to the half mark. also i would focus on the fan issue before the a/c as the fans not running normally can damage your car, so get the fans going first, then we can focus on the a/c

 

The a/c not turning on has nothing to do with the fan switches you are testing.

Based on an earlier post about shorting that pressure switch, it sounds like you have no R134a (or R12) in your system. You would have to get the pressures tested to verify. If you have no R134a (or R12), then you have a leak in the a/c system that you need to repair.

As for the fan switches, try starting the car and letting it idle. If the temperature gauge inside of the car rises half way past the middle point, and the fans do not turn on, you can start testing those switches.

 

okay. idle for almost 25 mins and the temperature gauge does not seem to want to go pass the middle. It is close and just hangs there. The fan did not come on and when i finally turn it off. The fan did not come on either. help please?!

~pab

 

hi tried it again ... this time ran it for over 40 mins and the fans did come on (but just for 10-30 seconds) and it shut off. But, after turning the engine off, the fan did not come on - is it suppose to?

thanks again!

~pab

 

Your fan switches are good.

The fans turn on when the coolant gets to 194F when the engine running (which only happened for 30 seconds in your description).

The other fan switch (when the engine is not running) turns on at a much higher temperature (217 F). Your coolant never reached that temperature which is a good thing. I think you radiator is doing a good job of exchanging heat.

I think that your problem is that your a/c system has no charge. That pressure sensor disables the a/c system if the pressure is too high or too low. When you jumped that connector, you bypassed that pressure switch. The only way to tell for sure is to have the high and low pressures tested.

 

thanks. PAhonda -

how do I test high/low pressures? my car was converted to use r134a. i see two adapters (one blue and one black).

thanks! ~pab

 

it was "converted" to r134a about a week ago and this started happening. But now that i think about it, don't know how well the mechanic do with the conversion.

so, what are the steps to test high/low pressure ... which adapter is high and which is low (blue adapter is close to the passenger side and the black is on the driver side). Also, if i needed to change the a/c pressure switch - are there any particular things i need to do before removing and replacing?

thanks!

~pab

 

pretty sure it is something as simple as adding refrigerant to the system. the compressor may need to have oil added as well.

also replace that temp switch b, the one on the water outlet housing

 

Temp B switch is probably OK. Leave it alone for now.

Pab - You should have told us that you had work done on the a/c recently (read the required reading on top of this forum).

You probably have a leak in the system, if it was charged with R134a last week. The leak will need to be fixed, then you can recharge the system.

 

PAHonda ... sorry about that. i thought I did mentioned it in the first several posts.

what would i need to do to check for leaks?

-pab