A/C not working
 

I have 2008 Rdx with 70,000 miles and my a/c will work off and on.the fan blows fine but compressor cuts out.the relay kicks in.it will work fine for a couple of days and just quitsWhen it works it freezes you out.does anybody have a wiring diagram are have any ideas?

Today my wife got in the car in the morning and did some business running and it worked fine even stoping at stores turning the car on and off.at the end of the day it just quit.I don't think it is the compressor because that would just quit is ther a sensor before I take this thing to the dealer?

Did you ever get your ac issue resolved?

The ac in my wife's 2007 RDX just stopped working. It only has 64k miles on it. It blows hot air and never gets cool. I have verified the compressor is not coming on. I have checked all associated fuses and relays and they are all good. I am assuming either the compressor is bad or I have a leak in the system somewhere that caused the freon to leak which I have heard will cause the compressor to not operate.

Anyone else have any suggestions?

probably a leak of freon ,when its the compressor you can give a little dig with hammer .

I am having the same problems with my 08. i took it to the dealer a few weeks ago for an A16 service and told them to look into the a/c. they diagnosed it as low freon and recharged it and also placed dye in the compressor to pinpoint a leak if there is one. well its been two weeks and the thing is still not working properly. I will take it back to the dealership onmonday and give yall a heads up as to what they say the problem is.

I finally got my ac fixed. The issue was a relay that controls the compressor. I thought i had checked all of the relays and fuses but apparently i missed one. It was a $5 part.

What relay is it?when my a/c cuts out the fans are running properly inside and out and you can hit the button to turn the a/c off and the outdoor fans slow down.pressures are good.when my wife leaves to go to work in the morning it works fine whn leaves for lunch it works fine but when she leaves lunch to go back to work after lunch the compressor will not come on till late at night.this thing does it everyday and it has gotten worse with 93 deg air outside.need help on this one.

I have had the same problems for some time now, took it to the shop twice and it was ok while I was there in the early morning hours. Later when the temperature rises it does not cool. I am probably taking it back next week for the 3rd time to see if they can fix it in the afternoon when it's more than likely not cooling.

When you bring it in, insist that they check the relay for you. I posted earlier in this forum that i was having issues with my a/c in an 08 rdx and the dealership here in cleveland ohio couldnt replicate the problem. I recently was on vacation down in florida and took it to a local acura dealership and they diagnosed and fixed the problem within a matter of a few hours. its seriously a $5 part and something like $60 for labor (shop depending of course)

Changed the compressor relay in the morning and it worked fine.my wife stopped a couple of times and it quit working
I pulled the relay in and out and compressor is not coming on and the relay will not click on 2 new relays also.

My fix to intermittant A/C
 

Had the exact same problem on my 2007 RDX with 105K miles - the compressor would intermittently not engage (but the system worked great when it did). I replaced the relay - no help. I then measured the gap between the clutch armature and rotor - about .035" which is larger than the spec'd .020". I had heard that there is a spacer washer in there so I removed the armature, found and removed a .023" washer, reassembled, and voila - it's working perfectly.

The theory here is that the armature wears over time, creating a big enough gap eventually that the coil isn't strong enough to always pull the armature in. Close the gap some (change or remove washer) and it's "renewed".

I should be good for another 100K miles!

Additional comment
 

I forgot to tell you that I called the dealer on this issue after I figured out that an adjustment of the armature spacing should help. They said they never have done it and doubted it would help. They recommended a complete clutch replacement, which requires removal of the compressor - about $800!

What part is the clutch armature and rotor?

Added info
 

The armature is the disk on the very outside of the clutch assembly. When the compressor is off this disk is not rotating. When the compressor is on the disk gets pulled in to the rotor which is driven by the belt and always rotating when the engine is running.

The issue for me was that the armature had worn down so much that it could no longer be pulled all the way in to the rotor so removing the spacing washer closed the gap by .023" and the armature now engages the rotor every time the compressor turns on.

My wifes car has been intermitten since 91000 miles it now has 110000. It only doesn't work when it is really hot outside. Is this the intermitten problem you were having?

Can you help with giving a short instruction (or where to find the instruction if already available) how to do that? what to remove to get to the clutch, I figure i either have a worn clutch or bad coil.


Thanks in advance!

Venom, this is exact problem I'm seeing

Car AC work fine in the morning, but let it sit in the sun during the afternoon, then it won't turn on.

Even letting it cool down in the garage for 3-4 hours afterwork in the evening it won't turn on, but then next morning it work again.

but if i park in underground garage during the day, it work fine in the evening

Does anyone know if it is some sort of temp sensor problem or a problem with the Coil set? anybody able to measure the resistance on the coil set?

On my way back from Mexico after driving 9 hours and while waiting at the border checkpoint idling for an hour the A/C just quit blowing cold air. Driving with the windows down on our way home with a 105F weather was not a good thing. After 3 hours I figured let me try it again and it started working again.

Took it to the dealer first thing next morning and dealer couldn't find the issue. Picked it up after 2 days and the day after it did it again. Dealer was already closed otherwise we would have gone in for the to see and diagnose.

It hasn't done it again. Could it be the above mentioned relay?

if its intermittent like that, its most likely either the relays or the field coil.

There are 2 relays to check, if it happen again, pull over when safe, turn off the car, open up the under hood fuse box, flip over the cover there's a diagram, find the 2 relay with a snowflakes symbol on it, and swap it with another relay having the EXACT SAME PARTNUMBER (but don't swap with the other relay with the snowflake) start the car and try the AC, if still don't work, try swapping the 2nd relay with the snowflake. The relays can be hot/burn to the touch so do be careful, helpful to have a small flat head screwdriver or other tools for prying the relay out from the sockets.

ONE of the symptom of a bad relay is that when the AC try to kick on only one of the radiator fan would run, the other would not run. if you swap the relay and the AC work again, then one of the relay is bad, you can find the relay at either Acura or Honda dealer, Honda dealer maybe cheaper, I think Autozone sell generic brand of this relay too.


If you try swapping both relays and it still would not run, then you are most likely looking at a problem with the field coil, I've wrote a DIY on replacing the field coil without purging freon/disconnecting the compressor in the DIY section, be aware the dealer will probably want to swap the entire compressor to fix this, and that seem to be around $1600 USD from what I've read.

I just got back from the Dealer after it started acting up again and they're telling me is the clutch and the coil that need replacing.

I have been having the same problem. The first time I took it into the shop, they said they couldnt reproduce it but said that the clutch was most likely the case which was like $900 all said and done.

In the process of diagnosing it, I think they recharged the freon. It worked fine for about a month, now the compressor hardly kicks on.. if it does only for a minute or two before it kicks off. It is definitely really cold air when it does kick on.

Does changing the relays really help? Or is does the clutch just need to be replaced? For $5 I may just try changing the relays myself first.

Before you go out to buy the relay...

There are 4 identical relays in the fuse box under the hood, 2 of them deal with the AC, 2 of them doesn't, flip over the fuse box cover for the diagram, you can mark them carefully with a sharpie to know which is which, then rotate/swap them around to see if its the relay that's the problem.

check out this thread for the DIY i wrote
https://acurazine.com/forums/1g-rdx-diy-faq-161/diy-replacing-field-coil-air-conditioning-compressor-862720/

Thanks!

I swapped out the first AC relay for a similar type and turned on the car. The AC started working right away and I also got some check engine errors. Seems like the AC relay is bad. I had to have the Auto Parts place rest the check engine light as it said my emissions system needed to be checked. Unfortunately out of 3 Auto parts places near me, none had a replacement part. Supposedly there is 1 store across town that has 1 replacement part. Hopefully that relay will fix my AC for $35 instead of $900.

Thank you! :thumbsup:

Ask you 1 more question

when the AC kick on, is that when you first start the car cold? because a common issue is the field coil going bad, and if that is the case, when the car is cold (ie next morning starting the car for work) it would turn on the AC/Compressor, but once the field coil get hot, it wont turn on the compressor and you get hot air blowing out of the vent

so when you AC actually blow cold air, is that always when the car is cold? or can be anytime randomly?
For me when my coil went bad, it would be like in the morning I drive to work, its like 90f outside that day, AC work just fine in the morning, but when I go out for lunch, the AC doesn't work anymore, and wont work in the evening either on the drive home, but next morning it magically work fine again

if its really the realy, Autozone and such sell it for under $10 generic, Mazda dealer sell it for $35/$40 ish OEM

I just got a letter in today from Acura stating the clutch coil on the AC unit is covered for 100K miles due to a known issue.

Great, after most of us already fix this with our own dime, can you post a scan of the letter?

Wondering if we can get reimburse or not.

Contact Acura or your dealer regarding Campaign #S58 or Service Bulletin #12-039.

If you had the AC repaired before 7 years and 100,000 miles, Acura will reimburse your repair cost. You need documentation of course.

If you haven't had the work done, Acura will replace the compressor clutch and field coil under the extended warranty.

that is correct.

I also got this letter - I scanned a copy for you.(2pgs)

http://effex-ent.net/cars/RDX_AC_PG1.jpg

http://effex-ent.net/cars/RDX_AC_PG2.jpg

I got this letter in the mail. I had my AC compressor AND condenser (and some lines) replaced...totaling around $1500. Hopefully my reimbursement will cover all of it. When Acura (dealership) diagnosed the AC issues, they said the compressor failure caused metal contaminants to get in the lines and condenser, which is why I had to replace all the parts. Hopefully they'll tell Acura (the company) the same thing they told me =/.

Anyone else have a similar situation to mine?

Curious question for you guys. Have you guys noticed i guess when the fan kicks on and off, that the lights on the ac buttons and such, dim for a split second? My tc didn't have this problem so I am just wondering if it is a problem or if it is normal... Kinda annoying as it catches my attention out of the corner of my eye. And also I too recieved that exact same letter. Wondering if I should go have them check it out... lol

Maybe its just the weak alternator trying to power the car, I notice all the dash light dim for a moment.

Go have your battery checked out, more likely to be the battery dying, I just recently replaced the battery on my wife's 08 RDX, it did the same thing any big current draw would dim the lights, also very easy to drain the battery in the car from just listening on the radio without the engine on resulting that it require a jump to start the car.

Hi, all, my wife noticed that her RDX stopped blowing cold air today - this is the first time of the year that A/C is needed. I swapped all related fuses, and tested all relays, no change. I can tell that the A/C kicked in, when I lowered the temperature settings, both fans worked, and the system pressure appeared to be right. So I assume I am looking at the clutch/field coil/compressor or a combination of all? I am aware of the first two are covered by the extended warranty, so let's hope it's not the compressor. Any thoughts? Thanks - almost traded in at the end of last year - probably should have :)

leave the car on auto climate control, and stand by the front of the car, passenger side headlight with the hood open,

when the AC engage (ie fan blowing harder) there should be a very distinct "tick/click" metallic sound. that's the AC clutch engaging, if you only hear the fan going faster then slower without the associated tick/click sound most likely your clutch is not engaging as it should.

a little bit harder you can also visually confirm to see the clutch spinning or not, but you have to know exactly where the compressor pulley is and know what to watch for, basically there's a pulley with 3 bolt head in a triangle pattern, that would spin when the clutch is engaged, if they never spin the clutch is not engaging

Hi, bit 359, really appreciate your response. I borrowed a more accurate tool today to measure the low end pressure, it showed 70 psi, and there was no change whether the AC is on or off. Yesterday when I used the tool attached to the refill kit, it showed 45-50, but I didn't compare the reading on and off.

I didn't hear that the sound from engaging, I tried on my TL, I was able to hear that clearly so I know how it should sound. Based on the updated information, do you think what went wrong?

Thank you again for the help.

It turned out to be a bad relay, I think I moved around the relays, but that seemed to fix the issue. The dealer told me the Freon was low, so they recharged the system. Everything came out for about $260. Wife is happy, I feel like a man again.

So I just experienced this same issue and upon visiting the dealer, the AC worked fine and they could find no issue.

So a month later, the AC works for most of the day. After parking for 2 hours, the AC doesn't work. I didn't have time to dig in to the troubleshooting at that point.

Well the next day AC is now working again. So I called the dealer and they said it was most likely from low freon, and they suggested to refill it (~$170).

I am doubtful that it's related to low freon...when the system works it works great. Now that I know it may be related to the relays, I'll check that next time.

So MrClemson.....it's did you do both the relay and recharge at the same time? So really you can't say for sure which one fixed your issue?

I'll report back in next time I have an opportunity to troubleshoot this.

They are supposed to actually inspect the part, not just check to see if your AC is cold or not at that given time.

They probably only replaced one relay, on the receipt, it showed 1, $8.xx for part. Yes, they did both (replacing the relay and recharge Freon). The A/C didn't work AT ALL, so I feel it's probably more likely due to a bad relay.