Hey all,

My A/C compressor just self-destructed Was driving on the highway and the A/C started alternating warm / cold every 30 seconds. By the time I pulled over and into a parking lot to slow down and listen, the system was making an awful screeching noise when the A/C was turned on. So I turned it off and it's stayed off. The A/C had been making a weird high pitched whistle sound every now and then, sort of like a 1 second long slide whistle prior to this.

My plan is to remove and clean all the lines, and replace the other key parts, vaccum the system and take it to a shop to have the system filled. But I've never worked on this system before and could really use some help double checking what parts I need to buy, and where to find them, because the OEM honda parts are crazy expensive and/or discontinued.

This is what I've come up with as far as parts to clean:
Suction Hose
Discharge Hose
Suction Pipe
Condenser Pipe
Receiver (Drier) Pipe A
Receiver (Drier) Pipe B

Parts I'll need to replace (I'm assuming these can't be simply cleaned out, but please correct me if I'm wrong):
Compressor
Condenser
Receiver (drier)
Evaporator
Expansion Valve

Additional Parts I'll need to buy:
PAG 46 oil (I'd just assume put this in myself to ensure that the right amount and type gets used, rather than relying on the shop)

Am I missing anything? And any recommendations on where to pick up a compressor, condenser, and evaporator? The OEM are CRAZY expensive, and the drier isn't even available from Honda.

Thanks all! It's going to be a fun Christmas break

 

Look on Ebay. Sounds like all you need is the compressor. A buddy found the complete system there for his car a couple of years ago. He's a HVAC guy professionally so it was easy peasy.

-- Chuck

 

If you want to go overboard, spend a boat load of money and do lots of unnecessary things, go your route.

If the compressor is on its way out, simply replace the compressor. You do not need to "clean" any A/C lines since your system has not been exposed to air or opened up and left open, nor is "cleaning" recommended or performed on A/C components. There is also no reason or need to replace ALL the A/C components if they're not leaking or failing - but it's not my money.

Have a shop recover your refrigerant, you can then install a new/used compressor, go back to the the shop and they will put the system on a 30-45min vacuum which "cleans" out the system by removing any moisture, they will then add the appropriate amount of oil and charge the system accordingly.

 

Based on how the compressor sounded, i think it’s grenaded and I am expecting there’s a lot of metal debris in the system.

That’s why I figured I’d need to clean out the lines and replace the condenser etc?

When I replaced the compressor on my LS1, I didn’t replace anything else and in about 8 months the second unit blew up. After that, I cleaned the lines and replaced the other elements to make sure there wasn’t anything in the lines. That’s what I’m afraid of with this system.

I guess I could have the refrigerant evacuated and then check a couple of the lines in the engine bay to see if there’s any metal in them and go from there?

 

Did it fail internally or externally?

99% chance I am going to bet the clutch and field coil gave out, which is mounted on the outside of the compressor or the bearing gave out. In my years with Honda A/C components I've never seen a compressor fail internally and cause metal debris to go about the system.

You'll know immediately if there are metal shavings once you undo the lines from the compressor and look at the left over oil dripping out of the lines, you'll see metallic oil obviously. If you see this take a picture and post it, I've never seen it personally.

 

Same thing happened to me when I first got the car. If you hear the slide whistle you need oil.

You usually only need to replace the compressor discharge hose and clean the condenser, if your compressor blew up internally. Any other debris gets caught by the drier and expansion valve, which you should automatically replace if you are changing the compressor.

Ebay has the Kehin compressor for our cars, they sell it brand new as a kit. Make sure it is a new compressor not remanned.

 

Whistling heard from inside the cabin is due to low refrigerant levels going through the expansion valve, not oil related.

 

Really? How do low refrigerant levels cause this? I had good pressure indicating a correctly filled system, the PO said he recharged it. It is likely he only added refrigerant to a leaking compressor until the oil had escaped. It was blowing nice and cold in my car before the compressor grenaded itself so I assumed it was an oil issue. I can accept being wrong, but would like a bit of an explanation.

I guess if you're low on refrigerant the compressor has to work harder to get good head pressure. Which accelerates wear?

 

The expansion valve removes pressure from the liquid AC refrigerant, having too much or most commonly too little refrigerant will cause the expansion valve to overwork and whistle. It's just an acoustic frequency as the liquid passes through the orfiice as the pressure equalizes, so less refrigerant will cause more resonance. In the same fashion that having too much refrigerant/overcharging will 100% grenade a compressor.

This is a tell-tale sign on 2016+ Civic's when they come in with leaking condensers, hop in the car and all you hear is whistling through the expansion valve when the A/C compressor first kicks in and starts moving the refrigerant.

EDIT: Being low on refrigerant doesn't necessarily make the compressor work harder, since the compressor doesn't have a target pressure, so the pressures will just drop in a linear fashion across the low side and high side, until the pressure is too low which will then trigger the pressure switch and cut power to the compressor entirely.

 

Interesting, then it may have been that my system was overcharged! 7 years later and now I know.