Two summers ago, my a/c worked fine..last summer it was intermittent..now it works for 5 min or so then quits.

When its working, the car idles at 5-600rpm and blows fairly cold. Low pressure line is cool and shows around 40-42psi. When the a/c quits, it idles around 1300rpm. Compressor seems to be engaged still, and the low side pressure pegs my gage at 100+ psi.

It always seems to quit when I'm changing gears. If I wait until I'm on the highway to turn it on, where my rpms are constant..it'll work for hours..but once I kick it into neutral and start going thru the gears..it quits and won't work right until the car sits for a few hours.

Any idead? I don't want to go buy a compressor yet without confirmation here..that's a lot of money for a 263k mile car if its a relay or something.

Thanks for any help

 

Is the compressor really engaged when it is not cooling? The plate in front of the pulley spinning?

 

I am pretty sure it is..but I'll check when I get home this evening

 

I was totally off. It is NOT spinning when the problem occurs

 

Probably a clutch gap situation then. The condenser fans come on, but NOT the compressor, right? You can fix that yourself for zero dollars. Search for some of my posts about it.

 

Thanks I'll try that.

 

What year Civic is it? Just curious.

 

1994 1.5l

 

 

Amazing. Thank you!