del Sol - A/C Mystery

Hello all,

Here's my story:

We took our 1994 del Sol (SOHC V-tec) to the dealership to get the air
conditioner fixed. They stated the expansion valve and the evaporator was
bad. We agreed to the $710 repair estimate. We retrieved the car at noon and
by 12:14pm the air went out again. This is the second time this has
happened.

The "service assistant" also stated the condenser fan (which was replaced in
2003 by a shade-tree mechanic) was 75% too small and would also need
replacing if we wanted the a/c to blow below 40°F. We are deciding whether
or not to take it back....as we feel completely betrayed by the dealership.

My question is WHY doesn't the a/c work??? In addition, after they
"repaired" it, the engine idles well below 1Krpm. OR it randomly revs up to
3Krpm.

I just don't get it guys...am I cursed???

Any advice is sincerely appreciated...

 

Are the symptoms the same as before? If so, a guy named
Steven L. posted here recently that his dealer narrowed his
Civic's A/C problem to the heater control unit (the box
mounted in the dashboard of the car controlling fan speed,
on/off for the a/c, etc.). This was after someone else had
replaced his compressor. If memory serves, it seems the
toggle button for the a/c fails intermittently. Googling
suggests this is a fairly common failure mode, so make sure
the heater control unit is checked.

Two cents. I do not do much work with a/c systems but now
having a 93 Civic with a/c, I am trying to pick up more info
on what commonly fails on Honda a/c systems.

 

It ain't rocket science. Firstly, there's a cooling circuit. The performance
of this can be entirely established by the high and low side pressures and
temperatures. If the high side pressure / temp is to high, the heat isn't
coming out of the condenser, or there's too much refrigerant in the system,
if these are checked ok, there's a more serious problem which should be
obvious to anyone with the relevant knowledge.

If the cooling circuit is working ok, it's a control problem (jammed heater
valve, incorrect control flap operation, etc.)

If you take your car to a dealer and they charge you serious money to fix
the problem you should expect that they should solve it. They either fixed
the problem they diagnosed, or they didn't. Either way, they should feel
obliged to fix it properly for no further cost.

Some systems pick the revs up at idle to power the ac, sounds like this is
also going wrong but if the revs are going too high, this doesn't explain
lack of cooling.


www.poolecool.co.uk

 

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Coolant too low in the rad / reservoir bottle will cause some of the
symptoms you mentioned, especially the idle. Did you confirm all your
'under the hood' stuff after they worked on your car?

'Curly'