2003 CRV - needs throttle to keep compressor on, had a leak

[rebuilder86]

thank you for this technology specific forum.

im in Philippines (an Alien from Australia) working and raising a family and driving a 2003 honda CR-V.
I regularly drive it over the hills with the kids and wife and need aircon to stop the windows fogging up when it rains.

I bought the car 2 years ago. it had working aircon from the start.
I quickly learned that turning the Aircon on meant the compressor just turned on, and that the temperature knob had no effect on on it, almost as if someone had wired the switch directly to the compressor clutch. it never cycled off. it was great it was always cold, and when the wife complained "too cold" I would flick it off.
I was the thermostat, SIMPLES.
It did worry me a bit that while driving up hill, the car would feel sluggish, and when it felt like that I would hit the AC button off and it would feel like I just pressed the NOS button. All this extra power available down low rpm that isn't there while trying to run the compressor.

so with my limited knowledge of hvac, I assumed someone had fitted n oversized compressor or something like that.they do things like that here, install what fits, or take matters into their own hands regardless of OEM specs to make things work seamingly better, in this case, at the expense of fuel economy and power.

now after bout 2 years, the aircon started to decline in performance and started making. hissing noise from the vents, almost like the evaporator was resonating. a quick Google suggested that could simply be because of low pressure due to a leak.

I told my wife to just find someone to come look at it, I'm busy at work. some guy came, convinced wifey that he replaced in o ring, gassed it, and yeh it worked...... for 1 week.
I was driving home over the hills and it had a slight hissing sound, so I said to my wife, "there it is babe that's what you get when you try to fix anything here". then when we got into the city to the traffic lights, while stopped I noticed it cycling on for half a second, really hurting the rpm for that split second then giving up and clicking off. wait bout 10-15 seconds repeat. just hot air.
then I just turned it off and started screaming and gave up on it.

so a couple of days later, wifey had the man come back, as he had a 3 mth warranty. I was at work again. apparently he started the car and said "everything's fine maam" and left.

I start the car, and yeh it came on but then I let it cycle. few times and then it had the same issue again, short cycles of attempting to turn on.


so could it be that the compressor is just buggered? I imagine bit like my big air compressor , if the cylinder walls were to get damaged from whatever, the compression piston would get stuck an bind everything up. is it like that with a car aircon compressor? I believe the refrigerant also is supposed to contain some kind of lubricating oil? what if the wrong type was used with no lubricant? is the lubricant n additive or part of the manufctured gas? what if ur answer to that question is only relevant in a developed 1st world country?? is it possible that this is an internal compressor failure where the sealing surfces of the compression chamber, however it works, are scored or dmaged?
Honda had a recall or something for this year's compressor I believe.

it never used to matter where I set the temp dial. it was only after this guy came and added refigerant and did whatever he did with an o ring, that the temp knob did anything. I'm not sure what it's doing now, it seems as if it needs to be In full cold mode now or else it refuses to turn on. perhaps he found a hacked bypass thermostat and wired it back in? or perhaps the new gas levels were so extreme that it made the pressure switch happy for the first week while the new gas was destroying something else because it's mabye not the right gas? are there multiple types of car aircon gasses?

too many questions and hypotheses, Im sorry for that but I need to learn, that's because in order to live here as an alien, u need to be an engineering expert in every single field of technology tht you deal with in day to day life.

[tbirdtbird]

Wow. All the conjecture.

My bet is on the clutch air gap......being too wide. Have 'the guy' remove the thickest shim. The air gap should be about .020 when fixed.

[rebuilder86]

right so there's a wearing clutch plate that is dealt with via shims? fascinating.

would / could that just be a coincidence along with the hissing noise cause, which I think was/is low gas because of a gas leak?

All the details in the post are what most "help me" posts need. experts need background to understand a non technical person. but yeh I m going little bit crazy.

[rebuilder86]

Wow. All the conjecture.

My bet is on the clutch air gap......being too wide. Have 'the guy' remove the thickest shim. The air gap should be about .020 when fixed.

hey mate thanks, u read my problem and told me what to search for and the first video I see is this which seems to suggest what I didn't recognise was happening.... it's when the vehicle heats up.
https://youtu.be/zOjqjR8Mz64
I have. set of feeler gauges and I'll report back.

thank you so much

edit, is that 0.02 inches or mm? I imagine inches?

[rebuilder86]

well I was able to stuff in 0.08 inches lol. I'm not looking forward to this , but hopefully ur experience just saved me my agony.

[rebuilder86]

bahahaaa this belt again. Evey time I have a problem on this car, every time, it involves removing this God forsaken serpentine belt. thanks to Honda who made it so that nothing other than their official belt removal tool can do it, I have to remove engine mounts and jack engine up so that the tensioner bolt is clear of the chassis rails to get a high quality impact driver socket onto it, as that's the only type of socket that doesn't slip around the tensioner bolt and destroy it. fun n games.

[rebuilder86]

ok so I managed to get the plate off my locking my vice grips onto one of the bits on the pulley and tht let me undo the bolt. got it off and found metal everywhere. about 5 balls missing from the bearing, and the bearing face and seal completely dissintegrated. is this simple exterior bearing the bit that triggered the recall? apparently the recall was about an internal implosion.

I guess this bad bearing could be causing the shaft to vibrate breaking some kind of seal to cause a leak?

[Cusser]

ok so I managed to get the plate off my locking my vice grips onto one of the bits on the pulley and tht let me undo the bolt. got it off and found metal everywhere. about 5 balls missing from the bearing, and the bearing face and seal completely dissintegrated. is this simple exterior bearing the bit that triggered the recall? apparently the recall was about an internal implosion.

I guess this bad bearing could be causing the shaft to vibrate breaking some kind of seal to cause a leak?

Are you saying that the bearing in the AC clutch is bad? Some can have replacement bearings installed into them to fix.

[tbirdtbird]

the .020 spec was in inches.
.080 is wider than the Grand Canyon to a comp clutch.

Given that the pulley bearing gave up the ghost, that assembly can be repaired/replaced, but not sure how available those parts are where you are. Oftentimes a clutch rebuilding kit is almost the same price as a new comp, plus the added labor.

Prolly more cost effective to replace the comp.
When the fittings have been removed from the comp, check for any black oil or fine grit in the oil. If you find any of that write back, since lots more will have to be done. Also, with a comp changeout, we are then also concerned with proper oil amount, so write back.
BTW we do not advise a reman comp, ever. They do not hold up. OEM would be best. There are some Chinese knockoffs out there but the quality is very variable. Again, depends on what is available

I would also leak check the system if it is opened up.
BTW NEVER add a can of refrigerant that has a sealer, it will destroy your system

[JohnHere]

If your Honda has more than 100,000 miles (160,000 km.) on it, the compressor is probably getting "tired," so I would seriously consider replacing it and the clutch as a unit with a new (not rebuilt) assembly. The OEM compressor is a Keihin branded unit.

You might also have other issues that need to be addressed and other components replaced as previously mentioned, but I would start with the compressor since the clutch is shot anyway.