1995 honda civic dx, 5spd.

okay so my AC blows, but its hot air. I can turn the AC on and the belt spins and the fan comes on as its supposed to. Does anyone know what the possible problems could be ?

Does the fact that the fan comes on and the belt spins rule out any possible problems?

thanks so much for your help!

 

im not any where near an expert but my guess is it has to be recharged?

 

well all I do know is that when i bought the car off the original owner they were having AC issues and couldn't get it to work properly. I'm just trying to narrow down the issues to see if the problem can be fixed cheaply, or better yet by me (not likely lol)..

 

Well assuming the system is fully charged.... let's see...

The belt may spin but the compressor clutch may not be engaging. Pop the hood, start it up, get under the hood and listen. Have a friend press the AC button. You should hear a loud CLICK. That'll be the compressor clutch engaging. If it DOES NOT click...

Relays!

You'll see two black rectangular boxes right inside the hood on the core support, to the right. One is the condenser relay, the other is the compressor relay.





Start the car, turn on your AC, go back under the hood and tap those relays with a blunt object. Just thumping them with your fingers might do the trick too. If you hear a loud click and suddenly the air blows cold, that tells you that you need to replace those relays. They're both important and both like... $60ish. I'm not sure if you can repair them.

All I know is that if one is bad, the other will follow soon and you DONT want your condenser relay to fail while the compressor is on. It'll blow a hole in the side of your compressor when the pressure spikes. I know this from experience.

 

okay ill try and tap on the relays... be back with the results soon!

 

By the way, a bad compressor clutch relay is only one of numerous possible causes for the compressor clutch not engaging. First determine whether the latter is actually the problem, as itinerant says.

 

^What he said. I was waiting for him to drop by with a troubleshooting chart for the AC.

 

Don't underestimate your ability to give good advice. Your focus on whether or not the compressor clutch engages was dead on.

 

I appreciate that. I had a similar problem with my 92 EX. The AC would almost never work unless I hit a speed bump and the relay accidentally engaged. Then one day I got stuck in traffic on the interstate. Compressor relay worked, condenser relay didn't. Pressure spike because the condenser fan wouldn't turn on. Boom, car died and there was neon goo all over the place from where the pressure spiked and blew a hole in the side of the compresser. Shifted to neutral, started it back up, had no AC for another year.

 

okay so i tapped those relays and nothing happened... also i tried to listen for a "loud" click when pressing the ac button and i didn't really hear a loud one, and I'm not sure if the click i heard was from the button or the engagement of the clutch. BUT i did notice when i pressed the AC button the engine did seem to "work harder" and you could hear the engine having to compensate for the AC being activated.. I'm not sure if that tells you anything or not.

thanks.