The thing is, I can take the compressor relay out and jump the relay points and the compressor starts up.My problem is that there is no signal going to the relay telling it to turn the compressor on.

 

OK, so I'm now pretty sure it is the TP. I think that I'd rather just bypass the TP all together rather than pay the $90 for a new one. Is there a way to do that? I know if I take the TP right off the compressor I can just connect the 2 wires that go to it together, but I'm wondering if there's an easier place to do that as it's kind of a small area to work in down at the compressor.

 

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OK, so now I'm mad. I took it into my local Honda dealer, and you were right, they wanted $500 to replace the TP. I paid them $90 for them to tell me it was the TP, got home, connected the 2 TP wires together, and it still doesn't work. So, I phoned them to tell them what I did, and they told me you can't bypass the TP and they have tried to do that in the past to save their customers some money and it didn't work. I told the guy I was talking to that the TP is just a switch that opens when the compressor gets too hot and that if you take the 2 wires going to it and connect them together it should work the same as if the switch was closed. The guy I was talking to said that he's just telling me what the tech's told him but that there's no way you can bypass the TP! I told him I was going to look into this and get back to him. Am I missing something here? Is there any way he could be right?

 

This is like the old models where the TP is merely in series with the single wire going to the compressor clutch, right? In that case it's not the TP since you could make the compressor run by bypassing the relay; the TP would still be in the circuit. Just jump the relay again with TP hooked up and if the compressor pulls in, the TP is OK. Do this only for a couple of seconds because there is no protection against overpressure.

The problem is probably the controls inside the car as you initially suspected. You should go back and demand a proper diagnosis.

 

No, there are 2 wires going to the TP. Power goes in one wire, into the TP and as long as it's closed, continues on it's way through the other wire. I did some looking into what a thermal protector does and it is just a switch that opens when it gets too hot. So, I am right, but I can't even argue with them because they told me that if they replace the TP it will work. Here's what I'm thinking they're doing here. It probably took a guy 5 mins to unplug the TP, test it, and plug it back in again. He is right, the TP is bad, but I think that's all he did. If he had bypassed the TP, or even just plug in a new one just to get the system working again without actually installing it, he would have realized that there is another problem as well as the TP. However, I think that when they charge me $500 to fix it, they can probably put a new TP in (without removing the compressor like they said they have to do) in under an hour. Even if they have to fix something else to get it to work, they'll still be ahead of the game. Or, maybe their plan was to charge me the $500, fix the TP, then inform me that it needs a new heater control panelfor probably another $300. I wouldn't have let that happen as I would have made sure that I signed something saying that I pay the $500 and my AC is working no matter what. But in the end I think I might have figured it out. I found an online shop manual for a 2002 civic si which has the same heating and AC controls as my car. I followed the troubleshooting steps and it got me to unplugone of the plugs for the heater control panel and see if there was power going to one of the wires.There was so then I was supposed to start the car and connect that wire to ground and if the AC started up, then the heater control panel is bad. The compressor and fan started up, so I'm left to believe that my heater control panel is bad. It really doesn't seem to make much sence to me as everything else on it works fine and the AC light works, but I won't take it back to Honda and the book leads me to believe that's what the problem is, so, I guess I'll start looking for a used one somewhere as they are kind of expensive.

 

The control unit with the ***** is expensive. But you probably need the other one with the three buttons, which is about $35 dealer list. I think there are two circuits thru the A/C button, one lights up the light and the other one engages the compressor system. So if one circuit is bad the light will still come on but the compressor won't. If the light comes on with the fan on any speed and goes out with the fan off, the **** unit is probably OK since that's it's only connection to control the A/C.

 

The AC on my 2002 Honda Civic EX coupe (80k miles, auto)just went out as well, it sounds like the same problem you are having. When I jump the Compressor relay, the compressor kicks on. Otherwise, I can not get the compressor to come on. What parts are between the AC button and the compressor relay? Is there some other fuse or relay that has gone bad? Thanks.