Finally took a road trip this summer, and I had an A/C issue come up in my 2005 Acura TL. After driving on the highway for a hour and half with the A/C recycling the cabin air, all of a sudden frost/condensation appeared on my vents. I didn't notice any big increase in the temperature gauge, and the airflow coming out of the A/C became weaker and warmer after I turned the A/C back on. As I increased the fan power, you could hear the fan working harder but the airflow was still weak. Recently, while doing some in town driving the A/C went from cold to the warm and weaker airflow. I just wanted to see if anyone else had a similar experience or advice.

FYI, I have checked the fuses and replaced the cabin air filter. As I live in humid Houston, I know that humidity can sometimes cause issues. Does it sound like I need to replace the blower motor or heater core??? Any advice and repair costs would be greatly appreciated.

 

Couple of possibles. You may have had a coil freeze-up. This is caused by either a blocked/reduced flow of air across the evaporator coil or running the A/C on recirculate when there is high humidity or both.

Make sure you don't run your A/C on recirculate all the time. This can increase cabin humidity and fogging on the windows, and bring about coil freeze-up. If the coil does start to freeze up, the symptoms are reduced cooling (a very noticeable change in the temp and feel of the A/C air) and increased humidity inside the cabin. In some cases, small ice crystals can exit the vents.

 

Thanks for the breakdown! Yea, I don't typically use the recirculate too often but I did on this last trip and saw those crystals. On the way back home, I didn't run the A/C because I didn't want to potentially cause more damage...

Could the reduced airflow be potentially caused by a weak blower motor or some other part? I have never been really been impressed by the A/C airflow since I bought the car used 2.5 years ago.

 

Does this reduced airflow happen when the A/C is not in use or when first starting off after the car has been sitting all night? If it does, there can be several reasons for this. Dirty cabin filter (but you said you changed it), wrong type of cabin filter (too restrictive to flow), blocked intake area from the outside where air enters the system, something which has broken off and is blocking flow, directing vanes not working (moving) as they should, a failing blower motor.

First thing to do is make sure all of the dash vents are flowing air. Next, without using the A/C, turn the fan speed up as high as it will go and check the flow (it should be pretty strong). Next, set the cabin temp to "Lo" and engage the AUTO button to activate the A/C it will come on in recirculate mode). Feel for flow and cold air. If any of this fails to work properly, you have a problem.

BTW, when taking a trip or going out for a bit in your car and you want to use your A/C, the AUTO mode is best. It will come in in recirculate mode until it gets the interior down to the temperature that you have set. Then it will change to outside air. This is normal and the way it is suppose to work. The AUTO mode should hold the cabin to a very nice temperature for a trip (mine in both of my 3G TL's works super). Once you are close to the end of your trip, or driving locally for a while, turn off recirculate manually (if it is still engaged), turn off A/C manually, if you have NAV say, "Climate Control dash", then set the fan speed pretty high. Do this a few miles, or about five minutes, before you reach you destination, to dry out your evaporator coil. This will virtually eliminate mildew and you will not have that musty odor when you get in your car.

 

Thanks for the info and reply. I took it in yesterday because it clearly has some issue...

 

Could you provide some insight as to what the problem is, once diagnosed. I am having a/c related problems in my girls 04 TL. The blower motor works fine, I think the compressor went out on it as I don't seem to hear it engage. BTW: i have checked the fuses also, unless there is something I am missing.

 

The TL should, as most cars, has an evaporator temperature sensor, so that when the evap starts to freeze, the compressor is cycled off until the evap temp is back to normal. Might want to check it out.

Many, many, and I mean many, years ago I purchased a car that had the A/C removed. Installed the unit, charged and took it for a ride on a hot humid day and after 20/30 minutes I had frost coming out of the vents. Took it back to the garage and installed a temperature sensor in the HVAC housing and wired to the compressor power wire, no more problems as it would cycle the compressor off when the evap temp dropped too low.

 

I had this happen on my wife's 1991 Honda Accord on the way to Charlottesville for my oldest daughter's graduation from UVA. Thought the A/C was gone. After the ceremonies when we returned to the car, everything was fine.

 

Took it in and my mechanic said that the expansion valve was probably the cause (ie: It it gets stuck either fully open meant really cold or fully closed meant warm air). It cost me $337.44 to replace the valve and get a charge of freon.

 

just that on my TL a little while ago as well, they should have also replaced your Receiver/Drier as well.

can't believe they charge you almost 300 bucks in labor, glad i did the work myself

 

You better hope your mechanic didn't put freon in your system.

 

I have a 1996 2.5TL. The cold air quit blowing. I looked at the under the hood and found the A/C pully and found black gunk seeping from what I assume is the bearing, kind of like melted rubber seeping out of the area of clutch/pully. In fact, the black globby stuff was in a lot of places around the engine compartment. Is this car in need of a new A/C clutch? Then, if so, how do you replace the clutch. I can easily get a 10mm wrench on the bolt but am seeking a way to hold the pully to unbolt the bolt.
Then I understand I need snap-ring pliers to do rest of the removal. Thanks ahead for anyone who can help.