Rep Power: 0

I just noticed today that my temperature gauge is set in the Hot zone when I turn on the fan or the A/C. Once I turn off the fan or a/c, the temperature gauge goes back to normal.

Prior to that, about a month now, I've been noticing that when I turn on the a/c, it stays cold for about 30-40 minutes and then it starts to blow hot air for a few minutes and then it goes back to cold. The air compressor seems to be shutting down from some sort of overload and then come back on automatically. Since I do a lot of driving uphill and downhill, I noticed that [ most, not all, of the time] the air seems to go out when I am going uphill and, after the car stabilizes on a level terrain, then the air kicks back in.

It's a 2001 Honda Civic LX.

I've been thinking about doing a radiator flush....it's been at least 3 years since I've had that done, could or would that help?

Could I be running out of freon? If so, about how much would that cost to get a refill?

Can anyone help?