A/C sporadicaly comes on and off, charge is fine when working, any ideas?
 

2008 rdx 200k miles, the A/C recently started to turn off only blowing warm and cold air intermittently. When the cold does come on, it blows cold like everything is fine, but it's pretty inconsistent, sometimes not working for longer periods, and recently it's actually been working most of the time, but still will blow hot sometimes for long car rides.
Somethings I've noticed:
- Most of the time it will blow cold when first stating a trip (usually when engine is cold like the first drive of the day, but only blows cold about 5-10 minutes if it isn't one of those days it lasts 30-45+ minutes)

- I personally didn't check the refrigerant myself but the owner checked it and says it's fine.

- when it blows warm the fan clutch isn't engaged

- sometimes when it's been blowing warm it will start to blow cold when driving but only for a minute or two then goes back to warm.

So if anyone has any suggestions or ideas or knows of something that is known to go bad that would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks for any help!

IDK. Mine does it too sometimes...



In my case, it was the condensor coil, then the cluch, later on.



It did fail for a day a couple of months ago, but other than that, it's been good!



Check to see if your A/C clutch is engaging, though...

Does it ever blow warm while the car is in motion (25+ mph)?

Does the issue seem more common on days with high humidity?

Clutch
 

My 07 RDX with 127K miles was having the same issues, aside from the fan not engaging anyway. From your description it sounds like the classic field coil failure. When the field coil gets too hot it will no longer engage the AC compressor clutch. I replaced mine, along with the pulley, for about $250 with all OEM parts.

There are plenty of other factors that may cause your AC to stop working. For example, the AC compressor clutch relay can fail and cause the clutch not to engage. Much cheaper and easier to fix than the field coil, so check that first.

The condenser fan not coming on is odd. Not sure what to make of that but I believe there’s a relay for the fan that you can also check.

My A/C went completely dead last week. Having it checked tomorrow.

Midnight, maybe that is because you have so many freaking miles on your car:) Hope it is relatively inexpensive

It's gone out twice before...


The RDX is just getting broken in, IMO!


But A/C is a must in New Orleans and Mississippi where I am!

Midnight, what was the issue with the AC?

Operator error? :tongue:

Check the easy stuff first. Make sure your condenser is clean. Too many bugs or leaves reduce the ability of the refrigerant to dispel heat. And get the refrigerant checked by a shop or use a set of manifold gauges if you have them. Too much or too little refrigerant can cause that. Too much causes the compressor to kick off too often due to excessive pressure which can otherwise damage the compressor.

This time, ut was the relay, but the first time, two years ago, it was the condenser, then last year, it was the clutch.

:rasp:

Having the same problem. When it's cool, like when i'm parked underground it's fine but if I park in the sun it will just blow hot air. Or if i go out and drive around for a 30 minutes with the AC on eventually it will just warm up.

Haven't been able to see my mechanic yet but for $30 i'm going to try the Relay and hope for the best. Just a lil frustrating :(

This was my first A/C problem... I really couldn't tell for the first year because it was so subtle, but it was the condenser that time.

Hopefully that is what it is, I replaced the Relay and it actually worked a little better then before. Drove to a car wash and tried to spray out the condenser as best as possible with a low pressure stream. When i finished and drove off the AC wouldn't cool down, so i stopped by the mechanic as he's right around the corner. Talked to him for 5 minutes and went home but the AC was working again when i left.

it's very hit or miss which is annoying.

Probably was both... Pretty normal for a 2007 RDX from what I hear... But this is the biggest mechanical flaw outside of window actuators! :bored:

So, you've made four posts and haven't written a single word in any of them; what are you, some kind of a spammer or post whore or something?

My son's 06 TSX with +150,000 miles on original compressor was doing the same thing with the A/C blowing warm. It turned out to be too much pressure on the high side of the compressor and the unit needed to be replaced. Fixed the issue with new unit from Ebay. Fast forward a year later and it started happening again. This time it was the condenser/radiator fans slowly giving out and not spinning fast enough to cool the condenser for city driving. New fans and back to normal with A/C.

Check the compressor relay. There are known issues about this posted in the forum. Honda upgraded the relay.