Wipers bogging down

Today I was driving in hard rain on the highway. The windows kept fogging up
even with the defroster, so I turned on my compressor. Whenever I turned on
the compressor, the wipers, set on high, would bog down to low speed. I
turned off the a/c button and the wipers picked up speed again, and so on.

What is this??? It was really weird, something I'd never noticed before.

['94 Accord EX Sedan 2.2 Automatic]

 

I forgot to mention that this was possibly the heaviest rain I've ever
driven in and I'd been driving through some areas of high water (enough to
make my brakes so wet they almost wouldn't stop the car at one point).

(Someone I know told me I might have "pissed off the electrical system."

 

_____________________

That's a fairly good non-technical term

Possibly your alternator drive belt is a bit loose (or wet from all the
splashing) and couldn't keep up with the demand of the AC and the wipers
and the heater fan. You may have been running on the battery as much as
anything. Good idea to have somebody check the tightness of your belts
once in awhile, especially wtih winter settling in. . . .

Kinda sounds like a LADA type of problem

No big worry, but look into it.

'Curly'

 

slipping alternator belt?

 

If the water was high enough to touch the crank pulley, the belts got wet
and were probably slipping. This in turn prevented the alternator from
spinning fast enough to handle the extra load. Did you hear any belt
screeching noises when you turned on the AC?

Check the belt tension, but don't overtighten them. If everything works
correctly after it all dries out, that was probably what happened.

 

I want to thank everyone for your suggestions. The water was indeed high
enough to wet the crank pulley. Although I didn't hear the belt screeching,
that doesn't mean it wasn't. There were enough other sounds to drown it out,
what with blinding rain battering (this is some of that south Texas flooding
that made the news yesterday) and the fan on high. I bet you're all right on
target, and I appreciate your input.