Car air-conditioning not working

debodun

debodun

SF VIP
Location
way upstate in New York, USA
I went to use my car's air conditioning yesterday and found it just blowing ambient temperature air. My car is a 2002 Honda Civic sedan. Do you think it would be better to take it to the dealership garage or a local grease monkey to have it serviced?
 

Check the freon. Or go to any auto parts place, and ask the proprietor for a can for about $15 or $20. They may add it for you.
I've done this before, and that may be all you need to do.
 
I take it to Quick Lane which is affiliated with a local Ford dealership. I had them do my brake lining a few years ago and never stopped having problems with them. They work, but are noisy and "bumpy". I've also had trouble taking it to the dealership. They usually charge even to look at it, they they have to order a part, I have to wait for it to come in, take it back and wait 6 hours for the repair (dealership is 20 miles away and they don't have 2-way courtesy transportation), then pay for another service visit. Also, the dealership has refused to work on my car if someone else as already tried. Somehow they seem to know.
 
Usually the problem is a leak in the air condition system. It may be easy to fix or it may be difficult if it's something like the compressor pump.

But you have to find out. So if there is a place that advertises air conditioning for cars, that's the place to go. What they do is inject a dye that shows the leak.
If it was me I would take it to the Honda dealership because they may have a recall or a service bulletin on it.

The other problem that may take place is that the belt driving the compressor may be faulty or slipping. That would be a cheap fix.
 
You didn't mention if you had access to a reputable repair facility that could diagnose the reason for the a/c failure. Your post didn't sound like you had confidence in the choices you have.
A car that is 15 years old could have a failed compressor or developed a leak in the system. Knowing why & the cost to repair the reason for failure gives you a choice. A new compressor is fairly cheap like around $150.00 plus labor to install and charge they system. The drive belts should be replaced unless you have already replaced the belts recently. Best guess worst case would be about at least $450.00 from a reputable repair place.

All in all for the short amount of time you would need the cooling provided by the a/c in upstate N Y. I'd seriously consider whether or not repair was worth it on a car that is 15 years old.
 
I just had the same issue and went to the auto parts store, picked up a large can of Freon that also has a leak stop in it and comes with the installation tool. Just hook it up to the only fitting it will snap on to, start the car, turn the A/C on full and just pull the trigger on the install tool. Takes about 2minutes, max, and that small investment and effort will tell you, like it did for me, that a rock hit my condenser and I took it to my mechanic. It is very simple to do! If I was closer, I'd do it for you. Best of luck!
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I can take it to Quick Lane and they can probably tell me what is causing the problem. If it's something like a belt or condenser, I'd probably then take it to a Honda place. If it's something as simple as re-filling the coolant, they can do it.
 
debodun said:
I went to use my car's air conditioning yesterday and found it just blowing ambient temperature air. My car is a 2002 Honda Civic sedan. Do you think it would be better to take it to the dealership garage or a local grease monkey to have it serviced?
Click to expand...

Forget the car's air conditioner and use FOUR EIGHTY 4/80 Four windows down & 80 miles per hour.
 
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