Really? Well, my car is sitting in 100 degree sun right now. And I can tell you, when I go to drive it, its going to take some time to cool down. Maybe I should have it looked at? Its never only taken 10 seconds to get fully cold, no matter what temp it was outside.

Anyone else find that it only takes 10 seconds till full cold?

 

I think he meant that the air coming out of the vents turns cold in about 10 sec. and not that it took 10 sec to lower the inside temperature to a cool setting. At least that's the experience with my car (10-15 sec.). I think it takes that long for the fan, at high speed, to push out all the hot air sitting in the vents and circulate the refrigirant throught the heat exchanger.

 

I remember once what an AC specialist told me: If after a few seconds the air isn't freaking cold, then it means your system isn't full of 134. If it feels cool, you're evn lower, and if it gets lukewarm, the system is about to stop working.

BTW, I have quite a history with car AC systems. Beside the issues I've had so far with the TSX, I've completely got my AC rebuilt on my 95 Accord after 3 full years of non-working (compressor was out with the rest of the line exposed). It took me a complete summer to get the system working reliably again, and 2700$. I now know what those systems are made up of.

 

I do the same thing. My air is very cold and gets up to that very quickly. Faster than any other car I've had that I can remember.

 

yes, A/C on my 95 accord was very weak.

 

The best $40 I spend a month is for garaged parking at work. The car is also garaged at home.

This keeps the TSX nice and cool for the most part and helps on the AC strain.

I have to say that the AC is better than any other Honda I have owned as well.

 

I turn my fan on a set the setting to "Lo" and it is nice and cold, and it only takes about 10 - 15 seconds to get that way.

 

No offense, and please take it lightly, but whoever told you that needs to go back to school. A/C systems have capacities, there are many factors that affect performance, and that ram air effect is the most critical. I personally believe american automobiles have figured that out and that's why american cars have the best a/c systems out there (bigger condensors, with a much larger condensor fan than in most cars). Dailmer-Chrysler leads this theory by the way, they really have some great a/c systems in their cars. But it could be other items like vent doors misalignment, heater valve issues, the thermo bulb that measures your evaporator temp, the thermal expansion valve (orifice tubes are generally in american cars), and the list goes on and on. Low refrigerant isn't always the issue and unfortunately the common believe of "if it ain't cool, ah well just add a bit more refrigrant to the system" cause of lot of people to overfill their systems. I've had a lot of cars come through with unbelievable amounts of refrigerant in their system (along with oil), some have really surprised me that the compressor seals didn't emplode.


I also used to have a '95 EX accord, black with black cloth interior. It also really sucked, I did just a few items to make it work good. You can only do so much to an a/c system and the rest will require upgrades (especially to the evaporator and condensor). All I did was evacuate, induce vaccum (to get all the moisture and air our of the a/c lines...both of those are very bad items to have in the system)& recharge (needed to add only a few more oz). Then adjusted the linkage to the vent doors, and thirdly the most important item is adjusted the water heater valve. But that system worked extremely well afterwards, not like the old R-12 systems, but decently well.

Yes it does, but the first the thing a/c techs look at is the vent doors when you have one side blowing cold air and the other warmer air. Your center duct is the beginning outlet, then your ducts lead to the side areas and lower vents. That means when the cold air is cooled (or rather evaporated) it is blown out to the center ducts first, that's why your supposed to do diagnosis to your a/c system with the center ducts as far as taking temp readings.

 

I agree with you goddsmack. I just wasn't getting so scientific: when the air feels cooler rather than it's usual coldness, it's usually a good indication something's going wrong. More often than not, it's because of a leak somewhere.

The Ram Air is definitely a big factor for sure. Never does my TSX with AC in good health, mind you, blow colder air than on the highway. I just wish they blotted the condenser behind the radiator, even if it has to be at the cost of a slight performance decrease. A condenser is much easier to puncture, and costlier too, to replace than a radiator.

I too had the Black on Black Accord. That car was an absolute inferno! We worked on the AC during all summer. Obviously, many hours of work went into putting the system back into vaccuum and testig to see if it would hold it (and it went rather well, all that was needed to do was re-oil the compressor, rplace it's seals, and replace the input and output hoses), but when we put the system back into pressure, running at capacity, it didn't take long before we started needing to replace old parts because they successively failed. We eventually replaced all of them.

Lesson learned: Never let an AC system down (depressurized) for more than a month. If you do like me and leave it be for 3 years, you're better off tearing it all out and starting back from new: Because you'll have to do just that. Only with way more labor and refrigerant and colorant fills.

As for the center ducts, what you described is pretty much what they did at my dealership. Only they finally pinpointed the problem down to 13oz missing due to a leaky compressor. (which they so kindly replaced out of good will)

 

I'm wondering what the difference between the auto and dual settings really is. I may be wrong, but can't the passenger change his/her temp in either setting dependent of the driver temp? Wouldn't that make auto a "dual" capable setting?

 

Sounds like an interesting question... assuming I haven't misunderstood what you are saying. I think it seems right to say "auto" is "dual" capable...

Now has anyone tried to do this?
- put climate control in full AUTO
- set temp to "LO" (or does it say "LOW"? whatever...)
- then set the passenger side temp to "HI" (or "HIGH"? ...)

What does the climate control do? Does it switch on the AC and blow cool AC'ed air on the driver's side and blow warm AC'ed (dehumidified) air on the passenger side?

Oh, also what about the rear vents? Are they tied into the "master" (driver) temp setting or the passenger side?

 

Someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but...

I think the Auto vs. Manual refers to the Fan speed/strength. In auto mode the speed/strength of the fan will be controlled automatically based on the temp. While in Manual mode you control the fan speed/strength yourself.

 

Hmm... interesting point. However, I am pretty sure that Auto means everything automatically adjusted by the system. That includes which vent(s) to blow air, fresh air or re-circulated, AC on or off, fan speed...

 

Just an update: it appears my AC issue was the same as the one sauceman faced. I picked it up Monday night and they informed me that I did have a leak, I believe in the 'trader valve'? They tightened it up, replaced the coolant, and it works again.

yay!

 

Maybe I'm not quite seeing the difference. Let's say I set the a/c to Auto at 68 degrees. What is the difference if I set it manually at 68 degrees?

Aside from how it gets to 68 degrees. Won't both methods maintain the temp when its attains the set temp? So what is auto really doing that I am not doing in manual?

Thx

 

Let me have a crack at this... (fyi, I have non-nav so maybe the buttons I have maybe different than those with nav)

I think the difference would be depending on "HOW" you disengage Auto mode or "WHAT" you take off from Auto mode (thus get the system into "manual" or really "semi-manual" mode). Here are examples of what I mean...

While the system is in "Auto", if I press the fan speed control to set fan speed to certain level, then I believe the system continues to automatically adjust (as it sees fit) other things like re-circulated/fresh air, which vent(s) to open, AC on/off, etc.

Let's continue from the above situation. If in addition to fan speed control, I then press the vent(s) selection. Then those two things are no longer automatically adjusted but other things are still automatic.

I don't know the exact algorithm built-in with the system but at some point of being no longer fully automatic, the system probably can only try to output air at temp in the range of the desired temp setting.

 

The general rule on ALL Honda/Acura auto climate control systems is this:

It is auto UNLESS you change it.

That means that if you press the fan speed button, the fan is now manually controlled, but which vents the air comes from, whether the A/C compressor is on or off, and fresh/recirc are all still auto.

Now, the big difference between a fully manual system and the auto system is that even if you touch all of those buttons, essentially rendering the system completely manual, it still isn't, because the air temperature is still regulated by the system. If you turn it to X degrees, it will decide what air temperature it requires to get there. On a manual system, you select the air temperature. If you turn A/C OFF, it won't allow the system to use the compressor, so it's only as capable as the temperature of the outside air. If you manually turn A/C on, the system will decide whether or not it needs to use it to cool the air. But if A/C is ON, the compressor essentially runs at low speeds all the time to dehumidify the air. Also, if you have Nav, the solar sensor will decide if one side needs a different temperature air than the other if you have it set on single (not dual) mode.

The only way to override the air temperature automation is to turn the system temperature all the way down or all the way up. Then it's on "max cooling" or "max heating" mode, and the temperature will decrease or increase indefinitely until you change it.

 

When I am not using AUTO, I noticed by turning the "circulate"(?) button on will get you cold air a lot quicker. Just a thought.

 

Also, AUTO will automatically turn on the recirculate button if the difference in temperature is great enough.

 

with everything you wrote on the system... except the above part that I quoted. I don't have Nav but I believe my climate control system does have a solar sensor (located at the centre base of the windshield/dash) that does feed the system for some decisions.

 

 

Okay, I didn't know that part. I have a weird thing that looks like a sensor in the same spot as you do, but it's on my 1996 2.5TL.

 

MTNKIll did you find out what your problem was? I had the same issue suddenly occur today. Passenger side is fine but the driver side is much warmer. Let me know. thx.

 

For reference, I bought a pocket dial thermometer yesterday for some problems I am having with my refrigerator, but on the way home I stuck it in the vent of my TSX with the A/C on Auto 72 deg. on re-circulate. It modulated between 40 to 45 degree F discharge temperatures. The temperature outside was ~97F.

 

That's a good idea. I can tell that I'm getting outside air temp through the driver side and VERY cold air through the passenger side.

 

Then it may not be a leak in the system, just a problem with the vents itself.