2003 Civic A/C problem
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2003 Civic A/C problem
The A/C in my wife's 2003 Civic 4-door no longer works. 1.5 years ago it stopped cooling and she took it to the shop. They couldn't find a leak so they refilled it and put in the dye and told here to come back in a few weeks. She never did and it worked fine last summer. Now that the warm weather is here she finds it's not working. I bought one of those refill kits and when I went to add it to see if that would fix the problem I found the compressor won't cycle at all. I see a pressure of 90 on the AC refill guage. The 2nd fan doesn't run either. I have checked all the fuses but am not sure how to check the relays. Any other suggestions to check before I take it to a shop and pay too much for a repair I could probably do myself if I knew where to look to find the problem?
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Re: 2003 Civic A/C problem
- Locate the air conditioner clutch relay by tracing the wire connection from the air conditioner compressor plug-in to the relay. In most cases, the relay is mounted on the fender well or fire wall. The relay in a typical A/C control installation has a three-wire connection. One wire is a ground, one wire is the input from the interior control panel and switches, and one wire is the power feed to the A/C compressor clutch.
- Using a 12-volt test light, connect the alligator clip to the negative terminal on the battery. Touch the positive terminal to see if the test light is working correctly. Unplug any relay terminal wiring with the interior car A/C controls in the "off" position. Check all three wires with the test light; with the engine running, the wires should all be inactive. With the engine running, turn the A/C control or switch to "on" at the dashboard. Check the three wires again. The wire from the controls should show "hot," but not the ground or the A/C compressor feed. This test confirms that the interior A/C control switches are functioning. Now plug the relay back in and disconnect the two-wire feed at the A/C compressor connection. One wire should be "hot," if not, the relay is not sending power to the A/C compressor. If it is, then the relay is functioning correctly and the A/C clutch is bad.
- To bypass the relay, plug the A/C back in. Return to the relay. Make a small 6-inch jumper wire and strip both ends. With the wiring plug still plugged in, touch the jumper wire to the hot side relay lug, from the controls as already identified and from the relay lug that feeds the A/C compressor. This will bypass the relay and engage the A/C compressor and confirm that the relay is defective.
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On another note make sure your system is not overcharged either, if you testing the low side then 90 is to high and your compressor wont come on.
if that is the high pressure its to low and that will also stop it from working.
maybe try to refill it again with the reccomended amount and see if it works.
if that is the high pressure its to low and that will also stop it from working.
maybe try to refill it again with the reccomended amount and see if it works.
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On another note make sure your system is not overcharged either, if you testing the low side then 90 is to high and your compressor wont come on.
if that is the high pressure its to low and that will also stop it from working.
maybe try to refill it again with the reccomended amount and see if it works.
if that is the high pressure its to low and that will also stop it from working.
maybe try to refill it again with the reccomended amount and see if it works.
With all that said, 90 psi without the compressor on is not outrageously high, BUT do not put some in it just to check, 90 psi is more than enough to negate the cut outs. The pressure will vary depending on ambient temperature too.
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Which fan doesn't run? If you're sitting in the drivers seat, the fan on the left is the condenser fan and the fan on the right is the radiator fan. I've heard of more than a few of the radiator fans stop working, including myself.
If the condenser fan is coming on then I would suspect a bad radiator fan motor. Take a multimeter across the two pins of the radiator fan connector and measure the resistance. When mine failed it was an open across those pins. That means you have a bad fan motor.
If the condenser fan is coming on then I would suspect a bad radiator fan motor. Take a multimeter across the two pins of the radiator fan connector and measure the resistance. When mine failed it was an open across those pins. That means you have a bad fan motor.
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