RE: Help! The dealership broke my AC!
 

I also have a hard time understanding the dT between sides. I have a Helm book for that car, & I want to look at the air ducts to help understand that.

Evaporator works by spraying liquid out a nozzle, & it flashes inside the evaporator. Low inventory = boiling/flashing in tubing before it reaches evap. THAT location is where the cooling occurs. Maybe a BIG dT across the face of the evaporator core.

Leaking slowly for a long time is not uncommon. That stuff NEVER heals itself, so you have to fix the leak. Someday.

RE: Help! The dealership broke my AC!
 

Thanks Jim for looking that up. I interested in what you find. I will look up as well though my book wont be in for a week or so.

RE: Help! The dealership broke my AC!
 

The air direction doors direct air flow to floor, dash, or defrost vents and mixes of these. The air is warmed by opening the heater core control valve w/ heat control (infinitely variable position) which allows hot water to enter the heater core warming the air flow. There is also a diverter door which blocks or allows air to flow over the heater core. I have never had warm air on one side and cold on the other myself, but have read of this several times on autoacforum.com and elsewhere. Apparently, the refrigerant only cools part of the evaporator when charge is low. This would account for low/no cooling of part of air return, but would not account for heated air (air much warmer than cabin air). Above is for manual AC/heater controls. For Auto Temp Control, the scheme may be quite different.

good luck

RE: Help! The dealership broke my AC!
 

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RE: Help! The dealership broke my AC!
 

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I did some inspection and verified that the compressor is covered in dirt and grime. I think the leak is coming from the suction hose (part 2) because it will glisten slightly under a flashlight. It could be as simple as replacing the o-ring (part 14). I am a little concerned that the leak would be coming from the sunction side and not the outlet side. Like I said before, the dealer recharged the system and everything is working fine so it must be a refrigerant containment issue. Id hate to have to replace the whole compressor due to a fualty o-ring.

Most shops want to replace the expansion valve and reciever dryer when they do this job. Is this neccesary?

RE: Help! The dealership broke my AC!
 

Expansion valve is easily plugged. Replace whenever system is open is a popular opinion.

Receiver/dryer has dessicant to absorb moisture. When system is open to air, it gets saturated. Usuallyits good to replace that.

Sounds like YOUR system has a slow leak, not completely leaked out, not really exposed to air. ????

RE: Help! The dealership broke my AC!
 

The hot & cold sides make sense to me now. Refrigerant comes in from the right, so if charge is low, all coolingcan be on theright side of the evaporator. The drawings in the Helm book arent real good to analyze flow distribution. But it looks liketheres notmuch room forair to mix before splitting to the side ducts.

RE: Help! The dealership broke my AC!
 

I believe it is a slow leak as well otherwise the dealership should have noticed a pressure build up or fall off when they evacuated and recharged the system. It is still working today so thats one day of containment.

RE: Help! The dealership broke my AC!
 

It is likely a bad o-ring that seals a junction causing the problem. Since some oil will remain at the leak site, you should see a build up of a dirt/oil mix. I would start checking the various connections of the a/c pipes in the engine bay. You can't see the ones inside of the evaporator.

RE: Help! The dealership broke my AC!
 

Yesterday I took the car to one of the President's award honda dealers in the city. They injected a tracer and found that both the suction and discharge hoses were leaking. Its a slow leak though. Total estimated bill was $430 which included $150 worth of parts. I declined and they recharged the system. I'm considered changing the hoses myself once the system loses its charge again and then regarging the system myself as well. A friend of mine said he has a vacumm pump he can lend me to purge the system. My service manual should arrive soon though im not sure if it will have step by step details on this repair.In the mean time can anyone give me someTIPS on how I will go about changing these hoses and charging the system?