My Ac was working great went on a month long vacation while away car sat and there was a bad heatwave upon returning Ac wouldn’t work then it just mysteriously started to work one day and worked great then after turning car on off a few times stopped working (weeks at a time) then it will turn on and work great and the same thing keeps happening over n over any ideas what it may be???
Could be that the relay for the compressor clutch is on its way out. Had a similar problem with an 03 Accord and swapping out the relay fixed it.
I had called my local Honda dealer and they told me that also however the next time I serviced it there the guy said they would drain and refill Ac (200+dollars) wait a week then check for leaks I told him it’s been going on m off for three years and when it’s working it’s cold so I don’t think it’s leaking then he said if it has leaks it will cost more I don’t know what to do to get it fixed should intel them to start with replacing the relay?
That seems, to me, to be an odd way to check for a leak. If it’s low, there’s a leak. If it’s a slow leak, you could fill it back up possibly get years out of it (or days if it’s fast), people do this all the time on their own with the cans of freon from the auto stores.
IME, with commercial type stuff, you can hunt the leak down with various methods, but you can check for the existence of a by evacuating the system, pulling a vacuum and seeing of the vacuum holds for a while. Draining it, refilling it (why?), then checking again in a week, seems like you’re going to risk blowing off that charge as well.
It should be mentioned, however, that there is a low pressure switch that will keep the entire system off if detects that you’re low on refrigerant, or if the switch is bad.
If you think it might be the relay, you can check that yourself, if you’re so inclined. Take it out and either buy a new one or temporarily swap it with another one that’s the same. For example, if you swap it with the starter relay and the car starts and the AC still doesn’t work, it’s not the relay.
You can bench test the relay, but that’s a PITA and it’s easier with 4 hands. You can jump the relay, but that only gives you some information, even if the clutch spins up (if it does, does cold air come out), it’s just a data point.
TLDR, I’d be reluctant, to evacuate and recharge the system to check for a leak. Is there a reason the tech doesn’t just want to hook some gauges up and see how much pressure is in there?
Just to be sure: When you say the AC wouldn’t work, you mean that it wouldn’t blow cold air, not that the fan wouldn’t blow at all, right?
Yeah, my 07 Civic A/C had a bad/loose electrical connection somewhere in it. Shop did a leak test, then looked thru everything else before just playing around with wires. Can’t recall where they said it was…
Relay was first thing they checked after visual inspection and hooking up gauges.
Yes the fan works fine just no cold air then one day I’ll start the car and it works great then after turning car on n off it will stop blowing cold air just hit or warm air may be months then it will work again so if it was leaking I’m sure it would all be gone by now I’ll try refilling it and check the relay thanks for all the help I appreciate it!!!
Early 2000s CRVs have ACs with a tendency to catastrophically self-obliterate in such a way that often requires a $2-3k replacement of the entire system.
But make sure your serpentine belt looks OK. That could be a cheap fix.
I’ll flag a mod re: forum choice.
Eta I see I got the car type wrong. Reading is hard
Why? Unless you know – not think, not suspect, not wonder, but KNOW – that the refrigerant level is low, you run the risk of overcharging the system and then having two problems to deal with.
Have it tested and evaluated by a competent auto repair shop. It doesn’t have to be a dealer, but it should be someone who knows what they’re doing. We can make intelligent guesses here on this forum, but they could well turn out wrong and the internet is no substitute for actually being there with the vehicle.
When my AC started going out, they emptied the system (although it was largely out of freon), used a vacuum to check for leaks (would the vacuum shut off or pull in outside air) and then recharged it with dye added to the freon so if there was a leak they could easily locate it next time.
Despite the vacuum test, a month later the AC is going flaky again so I guess I’m glad they added the dye last time. I assume that’s what the dealership wants to do when they talk about refilling the system to check for leaks.
Edit: My local shop only charged me $100 for the empty/test/refill so the OP might want to shop around if the dealership is charging $200.