Hi there,

I recently purchased a 2004 TSX automatic with 100k on it. Car is in beautiful condition and up until today, everything has been working perfectly. Today when driving to lunch I noticed that my A/C wasn't engaging. Fan was on the highest setting and nothing was coming out. After playing with the temperature gauge and the fan would come on for a moment, then die out again. Does this sound like a bad compressor or could it be the compressor relay? I contacted the person I bought the car from to get an idea of the service history on the A/C, and he said it went out in 2011 and he thought it was the compressor, but turned out to be a small part that was around $35 (compressor relay, perhaps?)

I've read that if the freon is low, the compressor won't engage. Could that be the problem?

If it helps, I have noticed in the past week that sometimes the temperature is inconsistent.. there is a noticeable fluctuation in the temperature, but because it's still been keeping the car cold it hasn't been an issue. Is that a sign of low freon which could be causing the issue I'm having now?

Any help is greatly appreciated.. as a new Acura owner who absolutely loves his car, I would hate to think I'm going to have to drop serious money on a car I've had for just shy of 2 weeks..

 

First, welcome to the board

There are several threads about the A/C system on these vehicles (particularly the compressor on the '04's). The search function is pretty bad, but you will find that most information has been covered at least in some depth.

In you post you said that there was nothing coming out of the vents. Did you mean there was no airflow at all? If so that would not necessarily indicate that there was an issue with the vapor compression portion of the system. It could be something with the blower motor or even with the control unit itself.

If you turn up the fan speed the unit will not be in full auto and the blower should come on constantly, no matter what else is occurring with the system.

 

Hi there Mskierki,

You are correct: there is NOTHING coming out of the vent (zero airflow)... when I first noticed the problem, the setting was on high. After playing with the settings (temp + fan) it would blow for a minute and then cut out again. After describing the symptoms to an indy mechanic that I've had good luck with in the past, he said it might be the blower as well. From doing a quick google search, it looks like that part is relatively inexpensive ($50 or so) so I'm really hoping that's what it is. I'm taking the car to him tomorrow and he will do a free diagnostic. Thanks for the reply, it is much appreciated!

 

An intermittent blower motor sometimes occurs due to worn out brushes. If motor restarts by thumping dash near the blower, worn brushes are confirmed.

good luck

 

I replaced the entire AC system in my 04, turned out Honda never checked the relays and I figured it out myself after spending quite a bit of money. To behonest, the relays werent even bad, they just had a bad connection. So the act of pulling them out and putting them back in cleared up the bad connnection.

Good luck with your problems, the AC seems to be finicky in that first year run.

 

I have a 2004 TSX. Two years ago, my AC started blowing cool/warm air and then back to cold... Did it several times within a two day period and then started working properly again. I now have 120k miles and yesterday the AC started doing it again (almost 2 years later to the date)... blowing cool/warm air and then cold... on and off. I then heard some odd noise
Today when getting in the car, the AC was only blowing VERY hot air. I was driving down the road and heard an ugly sound like something fell off my car. I ended up taking it to a NAPA auto shop and was told (and shown) that the AC clutch plate came off. They told me the entire compressor needed to be replaced and I was quoted $1129 for compressor, dryer, ac flush and ac recharge.

What was your outcome?