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Our 2009 Honda Civic has 49k miles. My wife and I have put every one of those miles on her, and she is well taken care of.

Today, my wife went out to start the car and it was dead. Not a single volt of juice. The doors were all shut, lights were all off. There should have been no real reason why the battery would have been drained to zero. I charged the battery up for a few hours, and checked it. Was at 12.8v. Put it back in the Civic, and started it up.

I left the Civic idling for a few minutes while I went inside the house. I came out, and got in -- immediately heard a hissing noise from the passenger side. The same type of noise you hear when you turn the car off and turn the AC off.

Then, the engine started to bog down, a few times it nearly died. Keep in mind the AC controls are OFF.

I turned the car off, and opened the hood. The low pressure AC lines were frozen/frosted over completely. Then the lines started hissing, and what appeared to be freon began escaping. Then somewhat violent escape, like a turbo blowoff valve venting into the air.

I did not see where the freon was escaping from, I was looking away.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. The Civic starts right up, but now it has this AC issue. Are these related?

Thanks,
Matt

 
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More data:

Scangauge II pops C1555, and C1500

Any ideas?

 
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I pulled the AC relays (two of them?) and started the car. It did not freeze over. I put them back in, started the car, idled for 10 mins. It did not freeze over.

Likely they were stuck and pulling them jarred them loose? I'll replace them anyway, of course.

What would cause the engine to bog down at idle and die, even if it is the relay?

 
Rep Power: 308

I think you found it (the compressor relay stuck) If the compressor was engaged at start up it could have bogged it maybe ?

I looked a my 2010 and it still has the old style omron relay in place.

 
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I read a few things during my research for this issue. It is definitely the Omron relay, so I should get that swapped out to a newer/better relay?

Thanks for the reply.

Matt

 
Rep Power: 308

Don't have the exact part # handy but yes, there is an improved part and part # for it (it's the one with snowflake symbal on lid of fuse box)

The one I saw has "made in Vietnam" on package, and relay case.

 
Rep Power: 518

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

 
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Well that seemed to have fixed the problem! Thanks!