Brfitzp

Hi, for a few months now my ac randomly stops working. I turn the **** and hear absolutely nothing. But anyday now it will randomly start working just fine again.

I did some searching and a lot of people were having trouble with a relay, does this sound like it could be the relay?

Any help would be appreciated, thanks!!

ezone

Is this title correct? Do I need to change it to read AC instead of ACCOUNT?
Yeah, I will. Done.


Yes it certainly could be a relay, but it could be other stuff too. Easy to check, just get it to quit working then open the fuse box and tap on the clutch relay and see if it kicks on and cools again.

Brfitzp

Yes thank you, I'm on an iPad so it autocorrected to that.

That would be great if it was a relay, just 2 dumb questions left. Where under the hood would I find this, just in a fuse box I'd assume? Will I be able to identify the clutch relay from a diagram on the box? Or do I need to find something online?

Thank you!

ezone

Near the battery is the fuse box






AC clutch relay is position #12

I tap on it with something about the size of a screwdriver handle, but not so hard you break the plastic shell on the relay


Updated relay brand is MITSUBA, Honda part number 39794-SDA-A05

Brfitzp

Ok so I tapped on the relay a bunch and nothing kicked on. The next day the ac worked fine.

Now it's off again. When it works it blows cold and everything, should I just try and replace the relay anyway?

ezone

How many miles on the car?

Brfitzp

Its around 67,000 miles

ezone

You might swap one of the other nearly identical relays with the clutch relay to check.

If no, then I'd want to actually do a few tests to see if the system is even trying to operate the clutch first.

When it quits working, are the (radiator) fans on or off??
(you might need to open the hood and look, on low speed they may be too quiet to hear)

Brfitzp

When I tapped on the relay yesterday, the radiator fans weren't on at first and the ac **** was set to on high. The radiator fans eventually turned on when the car warmed up.

Also when I swap them, do they just pull straight out? Do I swap them with the car running?

ezone

Your interior fan works the whole time, right?


If the AC system does not turn the radiator fans on, then I think this one may be deeper than a relay issue.


try the HVAC self diagnosis and see if it returns any fault codes.

HVAC self diagnosis test

LINK: http://civic.hondafitjazz.com/A00/HTML/11/SNB6E11K73300000000BBAT00.html

Note: The first half of that article should be correct, but clearing codes is not right for this car. If the problem is corrected, the code is supposed to automatically disappear.

If it shows any codes, then I may tell you to begin there, but it depends on what the code is.

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There is a 3 wire plug that sits above your alternator, it is the AC compressor connector.
Unplug it.
Take the plug half that leads to the compressor (has 3 red wires), Test the resistance of the 2 outer terminals.
This is checking the thermal protector.
If it is open circuit, that will shut down the AC system.

Brfitzp

Ok so the code i received was number 6, which is the blower motor. I checked the ac compressor and could see it spinning, ruling out the relay for that. I checked the fuses both in the car and under the hood for the blower motor and they both appeared to be fine.

I would assume the fuses are fine since the ac still works but intermittently.

Brfitzp

So i discovered that the blower motor under the glove box was not running. If i tapped it, it would kick on, however it was making a strange noise. I replaced the motor for $65 from advanced auto parts. Hoping that solves the problem. Thanks for the help!

ezone

Sounds like you got it. Hope the fan was a direct fit, no hacking needed to install.

The interior fan has to run in order to keep the AC system running. If the interior fan doesn't run, the HVAC control panel can disable the AC.