dcsalling

I have a '97 Civic LX sedan, bought from a friend a few months ago. The A/C clutch had come apart late last year and he took off the belt, he said the A/C worked fine at the time but he did not want to fubar the compressor.

I had a mechanic do a ton of work on the car over the last few weeks and one of the items was to replace the clutch with a new one and put a new belt on. He did that and it seemed to work fine, blew cold air and after a few minutes, the car started having trouble idling and would not stay running with the A/C on... and when he turned off the switch, the clutch stayed engaged and the system blew out freon. He had to remove the belt to get the car to idle.

He took the car to work (a dealership) and checked the pressures and recharged the system, everything seemed fine, but we took it out for a test drive and while waiting for a light, the car started to idle low again and a cloud erupted from under the car with a fog of freon coming out from everywhere under the vehicle. The car at this point would not idle again and we had to pull over and remove the belt. The compressor clutch would not disengage.

I know that just because the compressor is running that is not a problem, the high pressure switch could be bleeding off excess pressure. The system still has a vacuum on it, so it is not totally open... and it cooled like a dream for 15 minutes or so until it blew.

Anyone have a similar story and solution?

Thanks for your help.