Rep Power: 0

2004 Civic Ex, I bought the car last year, a/c working and blowing nice and cold. Was getting belts changed and the a/c line to the right of the engine cracked and started leaking. It was temporarily taped up and wasn't a concern since it was winter. Eventually I bought and had the line replaced as well as a Freon recharge. It seemed great, drove a while down the highway back home with the a/c blasting cold air. Few days later I turn on the a/c and start driving, going about 45 and the best way i can describe this is it felt like a ghost was pushing on the gas and brake making my car buck/jerk every few seconds. It drives horrendous and feels like its about to break down if I keep the A/C on.

I checked under the hood during idle and a/c on, the engine visibly shakes significantly more when the clutch engages

There are also buzzing/rattling noises that occur but I haven't pinned down where its coming from.

Anyways, I am not experienced at all when it comes to this stuff so everyone I talked to has said to just replace the a/c compressor & drier but that is in fact not cheap so if I could get any help with pinning
down the culprit, wrong amount Freon, clogged system, etc., before pulling the trigger on the compressor, I would greatly appreciate it!

 
Rep Power: 222

Could be overfilled

 
Rep Power: 0

Ill bring it to the shop and see what they say. Thanks for the feedback

 
Rep Power: 0

K, so decided not to head to the shop, got me one of those cheap a/c gauges and the a/c was in the green. Still let out some to see if there is any difference and after driving quite a bit while blasting the a/c, smell is not there, no noises other than blower, car jerks way less now and mostly on acceleration. Engine shake still does occur during idle but im guessing that can be solved by tightening the iacv or doing the idle relearn procedure. Ill probably try again soon and let out some more pressure but this look like success.

 
Rep Power: 0

Okay so my belt has been squeaking for a while now so i went to check it and the tension bolt and a bolt holding the bracket to the alternator were both completely loose, belt was still decently tight somehow. Anyways I put em back in and tensioned it. Driving with A/C on is back to having issues, strange noises, super lag on throttle, etc. Was okay for the first 30 min drive but then when i got back on the freeway it started bugging. Still no problem with temp, blows really cold at all times.

 
Rep Power: 367

recheck the alternator again in a week or 100 mile driven.
that is a frequent ECU fried issue for the 7th gen cars

 
Rep Power: 0

Okay, just so I understand better, how does the alternator and ecu connect to my problem?

 
Rep Power: 367

not the problem you are having, warning you that loose alternator bolts can increase the amount of the problems you will have.
If you don't want good advice... i will stop trying to help if you don't want it

 
Rep Power: 0

I noticed it was loose so I tightened it like it’s supposed to be, not expecting it to get loose again? I will still recheck like you said.

I never said your advice was bad was asking a question bc i like to learn and im far from an expert. Thanks for the reply