hello, happy new year... I have one problem...

my civic 98 ex d16y8 manual transmission...

the another night I go to my home and when I open the door of the garage I listen the ac compressor clutch on off on off every 1 second and the engine rpm go up and down and after 5 times stabilizes...

I open the hood and see the condenser fan it working but I feel like a little slow and touch the hot side and it`s hot...

give me some advice...

thank´s a lot

 

If it does this with the condenser fan running all the time, I think the most likely reason would be the engine slows down too much when loaded by the compressor, so the ECU cuts it off to prevent stalling. Basically it's an idling problem (think dirty IACV). If that's what's happening you should be able to press on the gas pedal lightly to keep the rpm up and have the compressor stay on.

 

the a/c compressor kicks on and off every few secs when the heat is on, i usually just disconnect the power wire or the fuse for the a/c during the winter.

 

I assume the OP is somewhere where it is summer now.

It should not do that on a '94. On those the A/C button on the dash must be pressed. Starting in 96 (I think) the compressor will run automatically when the defrost vents are selected. This improves the defogging in moderately cold weather by dehumidifying the air going to the windshield.

Should not be a 1 second cycle in any case. Also if it's cycling for normal reasons, the condenser fan will cycle on and off along with the compressor. Condenser fan on all the time and compressor cycling is not normal.

 

I touch the hot line and it`s hot, I disconect the condenser fan westerday and check the problem and I see when the hot line become hot hot the problem appears again.

the idle come very slow because the high pressure when I connect the fan again become better...

I connect the fan again and the problem is gone... of course the hood is open and the air flow better...

I think the condenser fan it running I little bit slow and It`s make high pressure in the system...

when my car is cold don`t have any problem.

It`s normal this case? can I put some better fan to make colder the consender?

thank`s so much for the replys... sorry for my english i`m from venezuela...

 

yes, I press the gas lightly and the compressor stay on 30 second... but I feel like the hot line is more hot than always...

the fan and compressor become on and off together...

 

You may need to replace the condenser fan.

 

Revving the engine would make an excessive pressure situation worse. If the pressure is too high the compressor would still be cycling with the engine rpm up. I think the problem is the low idle. Does it stay cold inside the car if you rev the engine?

You should test with pressure gauges-- and if that shows pressure is too high (and you know the system is properly charged) then consider a new fan. A Honda stock one would be fine. If yours really is slowing down, it won't be long before it stops entirely.

 

Good point. Do you think that revving the engine might for some reason increase the condenser fan speed and thereby provide more cooling of the condenser? I guess you are thinking that the idle speed is low, which is in turn causing the condenser fan to run too slowly.

 

I think it is that the compressor is pulling the idle speed down too low and the ECU anti-stall logic drops out the compressor. I don't think it's ever reaching high pressure cut out, or it would keep doing it at higher rpm too. Of course I'd want to put gauges on it to see what the high side is doing, but if it is cooling OK the OP should just need to fix the idle at the engine. Opening the air screw may be all that's necessary if that doesn't make it idle too fast with the A/C off.