2003 CRV - needs throttle to keep compressor on, had a leak
Posted: Wed Aug 03, 2022 9:06 pm
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.
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.