EightyDeuce
New Member
Couple of weeks ago, my fiancé’s 01 Civic 2D A/C started to crap out. We took to a shop and they refilled the system to see if it would fix anything, that cost us $140 and it seemed to have fixed the problem. A day later, the A/C started working intermittently and then stopped all together. Before we took it back to the shop, I started to do some digging on the internet to check for some common A/C problems. What I found was that the AC clutch was not engaging.
So I figured it would be a simple clutch replacement job and took it back to the shop to verify. They confirmed the clutch was the issue and that it would cost $700 to replace the compressor (even though it was working), clutch, evacuate and refill. Not ready to drop $700 just yet, we're recent college graduates so money is a bit tight right now as we settle down, so we decided to just ride it out and wait until we have some $$ we can allocate.
In the meantime, I continued to do some research. I checked the 1 (hood) & 14 (dash) fuses, good; swapped the relays (used horn relay to swap), nothing turned on; jumped 1 & 2 (blu/red) on the AC clutch relay, and BAM, heard the clutch engage. Disconnected the jump wire, turned the car on and the AC was spitting out ice cubes. Though that it was fixed and let her drive a couple of days. Yesterday, after coming back from the gym, my fiance said that the AC did not work on the way to the gym but did on the way back. Checked this morning, seems to be working. I'm assuming it's going to get worse until, again, it stops altogether.
Any ideas? Am I hosed or can we try something else that doesn't require extensive mechanic skills or crazy tools? I really would like to save the $700 for something else.
So I figured it would be a simple clutch replacement job and took it back to the shop to verify. They confirmed the clutch was the issue and that it would cost $700 to replace the compressor (even though it was working), clutch, evacuate and refill. Not ready to drop $700 just yet, we're recent college graduates so money is a bit tight right now as we settle down, so we decided to just ride it out and wait until we have some $$ we can allocate.
In the meantime, I continued to do some research. I checked the 1 (hood) & 14 (dash) fuses, good; swapped the relays (used horn relay to swap), nothing turned on; jumped 1 & 2 (blu/red) on the AC clutch relay, and BAM, heard the clutch engage. Disconnected the jump wire, turned the car on and the AC was spitting out ice cubes. Though that it was fixed and let her drive a couple of days. Yesterday, after coming back from the gym, my fiance said that the AC did not work on the way to the gym but did on the way back. Checked this morning, seems to be working. I'm assuming it's going to get worse until, again, it stops altogether.
Any ideas? Am I hosed or can we try something else that doesn't require extensive mechanic skills or crazy tools? I really would like to save the $700 for something else.
