I've been using this forum for miscellaneous issues for the past year after I bought a 97 cl 2.2. very very informative and has not done me wrong so far. Now I have finally come to a fork in the road.

I am having an issue where there is a cyclical rough idle when my a/c is on. rpm drops to 100-200. At the same time, the a/c does not cool at a stop, but only when the car is in motion. I have searched the forums and have only found success with the issues individually. One fix being to replace the engine mounts and the other be to check the cooling fans and other misc problems.

I have a gut feeling that these two things are related to one another because when I do come to a stop and while the a/c begins to blow warm air, I hear a grinding noise that goes away when I turn the a/c off. If I leave it on it also stops but then the cyclical rough idle and low rpms begins for a few seconds and then stops and then the whole cycle repeats shortly after.

i have checked my cooling fans, neither of them are spinning, the main fan (the passenger side) will turn when forced with my hand so I believe it is a bad fan motor. I have yet to determine why the other fan is not working.

If ANYONE has ANY insight into these issues and whether the two are related or not I would greatly appreciate it. In the mean time I am going to look into why the condensor fan is not running and possibly replace the motor or confirm it is in fact the motor for the radiator fan.

 

Is your AC compressor going bad and bogging down the engine? Maybe you are hearing the compressor bearings grinding. How does the engine run with the AC off...does it run normally, without any noises?