I climbed up under my dash on the drivers side to take a look at something else. But I noticed that a connector attached to some wires attached to a clear/white plastic tube was not plugged into anything. Nearby it was a socket that it obviously plugs into. So I plugged it in. But I have no idea what it does and I can't seem to locate it on any diagram I can find. Can you help me figure out what it is?

It is up underneath the driver side dash. It is near the center of the vehicle, basically under the steering wheel and above the accelerator pedal. The white plastic tube to which the connector is connected appears to be part of the HVAC system, specifically the tube seems to be connected on its other end to either the driver air mix controller or the driver mode controller.

Here is a photo of the part in question. Taken while I was laying with my head up under the dash and my body hanging out the driver's door, for information about the angle.



My main question is, what does this connection do? Should I have left it unplugged? Or is it a good thing that I plugged it in?

 

hmm looks like a drain tube.
not sure, tho.

good that you plugged it in.

 

Possibly to keep condensation out of the system?

 

I climbed back up there to take a look in the daylight. The first thing I noticed is that this connector appears to connect to the back side of a small vent in the dash below and to the right of the steering wheel.

Here some better pics, including that vent. So I'm thinking this tube is blowing air from the HVAC system to keep my knees cool, maybe?





Here is where it plugs in...





Here is the vent on the outside of the dash...

 

Coool!
I wanna check my car to see if i have that little vent!!!!

 

Cabin air temperature sensor

 

Thanks, Ken! That appears to be what it is:

http://estore.honda.com/acura/parts/...n=&b=B++61&dl=

 

Yeah what he said.

 

ken is exactly right

 

So what problems might be caused if this part were disconnected, as it was in my TL until just last night?

 

Well it's used by the car to guesstimate when to alter the temperature when you set it to auto. Much like unplugging the sensor in your house. The A/C or heat won't know when it kick in.

Has your climate control been wacky?

 

testicle warmer

 

thx.4.lulz

 

Yes it has. See THIS THREAD for an explanation of issues I have been having.

Unfortunately, I don't think this solves my entire problem. Even with it plugged in, my A/C diagnostic returns the same error code as mentioned in that thread and the problem persists (A/C on the driver side only sometimes goes hot when it should not).

However, I have noticed that when the A/C goes hot on the driver side now, it is only going "warm" not and not completely hot like it was before. So at least it is slightly less broken than it was before.