intermittent A/C

[phx_one]

My A/C intermittently blows cool air then hot air. My A/C was fully charged with r-12, 5 days ago. I live in Phoenix, AZ and A/C is a necessity. Please help...

[accordlx]

Does this happen on the freeway or in city driving?

[DBMaster]

Accord LX is on the right track. It is most likely too wide of an air gap in your A/C clutch. That is what happened with mine three years ago (Keihin compressor). I would have cold air as long as I stayed on the highway. Once the engine bay got really hot from sitting in traffic, the clutch would not engage. I measures the gap and it was just slight too wide, but I also had some oil on it. Originally, I was just going to have the shims reworked to close up the gap, but pulling the clutch plate can make a leak worse and I just opted to replace the compressor with a new one (Sanden, from Honda).

If you don't have $1,000 burning a hole in your pocket you might just have the shims changed out to tighten up the air gap.

[phx_one]

The A/C bugs out in city driving and highway driving. It'll blow cool air for about 5 minutes then blow hot air for about 15 or so minutes. I don't know what it is, could it be an electrical problem? I'll check out the A/C clutch and see whats up from there.

thx

-John

[guaynabo89]

You say you just had it recharged 5 days ago. Did it start happenig then?

You might have too much pressure in the system. That also causes the on- off thing.

[DBMaster]

The specs for the A/C clutch air gap are given in the shop manual. I don't have access to mine right now so maybe someone here can post them for you. What you can do is get the engine nice and hot and get it to the point where the compressor quits engaging. When mine did this I pulled the car up onto my ramps and checked to make sure the front of the clutch was magnetized. It would hold a socket wrench against it, but once the engine bay was hot it made the gap just wide enough that the clutch would not close the gap and engage.

Of course, it could be something else, but this air gap issue is a known thing with the Keihin compressor.

[phx_one]

In reply to guaynabo89:

My A/C woes started before I got the system recharged. I thought recharging the r-12 would fix the problem but hasn't.

[DBMaster]

The problem i have described will not be affected by the state of charge in the system which is why I think it might be it.

[POS carb]

are your fans running? they should kick on when you turn on the a/c