As the title says, does the AC compressor cutoff at WOT like most cars do?

 

Yes. Right around 7K the compressor is turned off by the PCM.

 

I don't think so. I have been looking at this question in both the Standard Helm and Electric Helm Manuals as it is a good question. Slow infer that around 7K it does (i.e. V-Tec rnage) but the statemant is not supported as I can see. Do you have a Helm reference Slow?

Utah

 

It seems to me that it is RPM dependant, not throttle position. As posted above it does cut out at higher rpm.

 

I would imagine that to be believable, but it would probably be a reliability consideration. 9000RPM (at least AP1, but the compressor is likely similar if not the same) required all kinds of design considerations, and the alternator, AC compressor, and oil pump would have to handle that much.

I would think that ordering a new compressor to handle 9000 to be expensive, so perhaps Honda decided to cut it off at 7K. That, and performance!

 

Well on this issue I would probably trust slow at his word but there are a couple data points that strongly suggest that the AC is disabled. First the compressor is clutched. Once the clutch is present it would take little effort to use it to disable the compressor at WOT.

Additionally if you look at page 21-29 in the helm manual you will see the compressor clutch circuit troubleshooting. What's revelent is step 2. You see they ask you to verify correctness of three things. ECT, TPS and RPM.

Now you could argue that they ask you to verify RPM at idle because if you idle too low then the compressor won't work as designed. However that doesn't explain why they ask you to verify TPS voltage. To me TPS voltage is only relevant if they are using Throttle position as a control input in the compressor clutch circuit. If they are and TPS is incorrect then the compressor clutch may malfunction.

To me needing to verify the RPM reading and the TPS reading supports the claim that the compressor is disabled at both a specific RPM and TPS value.

 

Modifry did some testing a while back and found the that it didn't matter what TPS or load was, RPM was the deciding factor when the compressor was turned off. I don't remember the exact RPM just that's it's right around 7K.

 

My butt dyno says it turns off around 7k. It's like a second vtec.