My family has had 13+ Hondas spanning from 1992 to 2014. No a/c issues at all.
'17 Civic: Dealer says A/C Compressor, Condenser, & Evaporator are all leaking
- Thread starter Nessism1
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As dumb as it sounds, I can't find the evap drain. There is nothing obvious under the car, like one would expect. And my car don't drip given my short driving cycle.
There are two underbody splash panels under the car: a metal panel in front, under the engine, and a larger plastic panel, that goes front to back. I removed the front, didn't see anything, but the rear panel will be a major pain to remove. Very frustrating...
There are two underbody splash panels under the car: a metal panel in front, under the engine, and a larger plastic panel, that goes front to back. I removed the front, didn't see anything, but the rear panel will be a major pain to remove. Very frustrating...
Yeah, but you live in Minnesota.
This is correct. I just recently did AC condenser and dryer replacement to my car and had a look on these refridgerants. Both R134A and R1234yf have zero effect to the ozon layer, so that’s not an issue anymore.
R134A has still very high GWP rating of 1340, so it’s better to be responsible with that stuff. But the newer R1234yf is not a problem anymore with GWP only 4. So, it’s almost comparable to pure CO2.
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Sad to hear your woes. The problem is AC work requires some specialized tools and knowledge at minimum. In the past I paid good money to a cars ac worked on and afterwoods it only worked slighty better or broke again after a week.
I did some studying and bought a vacuum pump and gauge set and repaired to ac systems on two cars and made my money back on the tools.
I did some studying and bought a vacuum pump and gauge set and repaired to ac systems on two cars and made my money back on the tools.
Heat wave hitting my area. Dumped 4oz of R1234yf into the system and the AC is ice cold. How long it will last is unknown.
Long enough to trade in is all you need.
I find it to be crazy that there are some who are advocating selling a car because of AC issues!
Surely it's cheaper to repair the issue(s) than to buy a new car that by OP's account isn't used that much to begin with!? Seems like a lot of money to spend so they can drive 5k miles a year.. Especially being a Cali car, it should be in good shape and presumably meets their needs, so why spend more money on a replacement car?
Surely it's cheaper to repair the issue(s) than to buy a new car that by OP's account isn't used that much to begin with!? Seems like a lot of money to spend so they can drive 5k miles a year.. Especially being a Cali car, it should be in good shape and presumably meets their needs, so why spend more money on a replacement car?
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The one that originally gave Honda that bad reputation was Keihin, in the 80s.
I didn't see them use Keihin again until the early 2xxx CRV - and those had similar problems. Failures often with contamination of the entire system. A bulletin was made for this compressor failure ---- TSB 09-076
The term "black death" is often used for these compressor failures.
I really love Hondas - with their nimble handling, more fun per mile than any other vehicle.Honda definitely doesn't make them like they used to.
But Honda's reliablility has dropped to average on many model years. This might be due to them spending less money on Quality Assurance testing before taking a model to production.
I'm gradually making the transition to the most reliable Toyota models/years according to Consumer Reports
and buying used Toyotas with low mileage from original owners.
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I think this is what is happening to Toyota with their trucks.
OK that would make me think it's a very slow leak if 4oz gets it working well. Your system hasn't depleted to atmospheric pressure and been compromised with moisture.
If it's good for a couple months, an annual recharge might be your best financial plan.
Unfortunately the new 1234 stuff is about 3X the price of 134, but that's what it is.
Consider buying a set of cheap ac gauges and monitor your decay rate.
As they get more Americanized, are they hiring MBAs instead of engineers?
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I think the answer is yes.
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I read somewhere (can't remember where) that Toyota cut back on their typical pre-production run on the Tundra in order to get it to market faster. This would account for the many fit and finish issues they had on the early production run of the trucks. My understanding is the Japanese engineers weren't as involved during the development of the current Tundra as they have been in the past. This probably explains a lot. The Japanese have traditionally taken the job of getting everything right before sending it out the door much more seriously than their US counterparts.
This is what I did back in 2006 when the cost to fix the AC in my fiancé's work beater was more than the car was worth. I bought the tools needed, studied how to correctly fix and recharge systems and have successfully fixed around 20 vehicles since then.
Some years into this, I got tired of using cans to recharge with and bought a refrigerant scale for 30 lb tanks and bought several 30 lb tanks of R134a when they were still fairly cheap. Made recharging way easier and faster.
I keep reading about guys with 10th gen Civics that have multiple AC failures. So imagine paying $2200 to fix the evaporator, and then have it fail again? Also, the 10-year extended warranty on the condenser and compressor seal are ending in just a few years for some owners. At least those parts are relatively easy to fix...unlike the evaporator.
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...and condensers too. And we do change them too on Toyotas.. maybe less frequently than Honda however..
If 4oz is all it took to be ice cold again, I would just keep topping it off for now until the leak becomes much larger. If these things are known to leak anyways, no point replacing everything now when the leak is super slow.
