2016 Civic EX-T A/C Issue

creamofpayne

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Even though the issues people here are reporting seem scary, the problems are affecting an extremely small percentage of owners. It just seems worse since they are all gathered in 1 model-specific forum.
Totally understand this, but I really don't want to have to deal with any type of A/C issue. Other issues that have been reported I can deal with, but that would just be the worst especially heading into our 120 F weather. I'm also coming off of a 2007 Xterra that was gifted to me by the gods themselves. Never had a single issue with it so I've been spoiled.

What's the cost difference between them? The Golfs were nice, but just didn't feel 'right' (Coming from a Passat, and I've owned a Golf before). The Civic had that feeling, though it doesn't feel as solid. For $10k in the difference, I figured I'd give Honda a try!
Offered $23k OTD for the Civic EX-T here in Phoenix. From what I gather it's a great deal with our ~9% sales tax. Didn't sit down for hard numbers on the Golf but it will be more expensive, probably $3k or so depending on trim/engine. I drove both the 2.0 & 1.8 engines and they felt fantastic. Really sporty, ridiculous pickup, extremely solid. The drive felt better than the Civic, but not so sure it outweighs the cost difference plus VW reliability concerns and the like.

Been doing a lot of research today and I'm leaning more and more towards the Civic. Just going to pray my A/C doesn't break!

Deciding factor is that I'm not a huge car guy, and the consensus seems to be if you go VW, you need to be OCD about maintenance. That would not describe me.

I may be biased since I'm in love with my Coupe, but there is no way I would ever buy a VW.

Unless it was a very old beetle. :thumbsup:
I hear ya. There's the stigma there. But damn if that car doesn't drive well.
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Gavnzdad

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I hear ya. There's the stigma there. But damn if that car doesn't drive well.
With me it has nothing to do with a stigma on the VW brand, I just think almost all their cars are ugly, and have been for a long time. They probably drive pretty good. The new golf looks too much like the one my buddy had back in the 90s', and I thought it was ugly then. The Golf SportWagen speaks for itself. The Tiguan is, kinda okay I guess....the Toureg, not so much. The new beetle is (slaps forehead). With the new Passat or Jetta, you might as well buy a car from the late 80s', looks about the same. The EOS is kinda cute, but WAY too expensive.

Personal opinion though. :)
 
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Billy4202

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With me it has nothing to do with a stigma on the VW brand, I just think almost all their cars are ugly, and have been for a long time. They probably drive pretty good. The new golf looks too much like the one my buddy had back in the 90s', and I thought it was ugly then. The Golf SportWagen speaks for itself. The Tiguan is, kinda okay I guess....the Toureg, not so much. The new beetle is (slaps forehead). With the new Passat or Jetta, you might as well buy a car from the late 80s', looks about the same. The EOS is kinda cute, but WAY too expensive.

Personal opinion though. :)
My "issue" with VW is that they never seem to be totally in-sync with the market. Their product lineup isn't bad. However, the majority isn't really class-leading.

And the styling for the majority of their cars is almost Saab-like - it rarely changes much generation to generation.

Jetta - Mid-pack
Passat - Mid-pack
CC - Same car since '08 with some refreshes
Tiguan - No one knows about it; same car since '09
Barbie Volkwsagen New Beetle - lol
EOS - good that they killed it off
Touraeg - nice, but should've bought an Audi (starts at $42-$63(!!!)k)
Golf - IMO, in terms of class, best in their product line + GTI is competitively priced and fun

*PS: Not hating.
 

Troy Jollimore

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Offered $23k OTD for the Civic EX-T here in Phoenix. From what I gather it's a great deal with our ~9% sales tax. Didn't sit down for hard numbers on the Golf but it will be more expensive, probably $3k or so depending on trim/engine. I drove both the 2.0 & 1.8 engines and they felt fantastic. Really sporty, ridiculous pickup, extremely solid. The drive felt better than the Civic, but not so sure it outweighs the cost difference plus VW reliability concerns and the like.

Been doing a lot of research today and I'm leaning more and more towards the Civic. Just going to pray my A/C doesn't break!

Deciding factor is that I'm not a huge car guy, and the consensus seems to be if you go VW, you need to be OCD about maintenance. That would not describe me.
Assume the A/C won't. Heh, in every enthusiast car board I've been on, every time a young kid pops up, says they don't have car repair skills, not much money, etc., the replies are the same, "Go buy a Civic or Corolla." ;)

You don't have to be OCD on maintenance with Euro cars, but they can bite you if it's neglected. Honda and Toyota are known for 'just running'.
 


critik

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Interesting. I'm having the same problems in a 2016 Civic EX-T. Hopefully our dealership can fix it quickly. I'll make sure to mention all this when I drop it off.

Unfortunately, our dealer is out of loaners because of the air bag recall. Blah.

We actually traded out of a Jeep Renegade because of continuous electrical problems. It spent about 27 days in the shop within the first year. Actually, when we first got it we had to turn around and take it back to the dealership where it had to sit for 10 days (and then another 7 after that). These were all for serious issues, though, where the car literally couldn't be driven. So it's funny...my wife says as long as it's just the A/C, it's no big deal for her...as long as the car still runs! Shame we have such bad luck with cars, though. Maybe we should stay away from new models?

Hopefully Honda takes care of us. Jeep certainly did not.
 

Troy Jollimore

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[QUOTE="critik, post: 70819, member: 4796]Shame we have such bad luck with cars, though. Maybe we should stay away from new models?

Hopefully Honda takes care of us. Jeep certainly did not.[/QUOTE]

South Carolina, watch out for the airbags! ;) Yeah, I got burned by Chrysler once. ONCE. Honda is the exact opposite. They try their hardest to help you out within reason.
 
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pablidito

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Update - so it's been a week now and A/C is still blowing cold. Seems like the new compressor might have done the trick. If anything changes I'll post here but I think I might be able to finally settle in and enjoy my new EX-T! Hopefully anyone else with the same issue can get a quick resolution.
 

creamofpayne

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Update - so it's been a week now and A/C is still blowing cold. Seems like the new compressor might have done the trick. If anything changes I'll post here but I think I might be able to finally settle in and enjoy my new EX-T! Hopefully anyone else with the same issue can get a quick resolution.
Glad to hear it! I'd say you've gone through enough already.
 


tiernanjustin

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Turned out my AC was blowing hot air then cold air off and on was because the wire that goes to the switch on the compressor wasn't properly seated all the way. They removed the front bumper unplugged it and plugged it back in and AC is working good now. Its amazing how well things work when you plug them in. Came that way from the factory.
 

Bigredone

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I have a 2016 civic ex L. Day after I bought it the ac started to act up. Same issues as stated in this and similar Posts.
Brought it in, the purged the system and said it was fine, strike 1.
Oops, they were wrong. 2 days later brought it back sat in the shop for 2 days again no issue found, strike 2.
A day later drove it in while it was blowing hot air. The techo tried to say I had the ac button off. I said no, it was in automatic thus no need for me to do anything,but adjust the temp set point.
He thought about it, .. ...... then poof.. . He agreed with me.
I received a call from the service rep who said that the service manager couldn't get it to happen, but then took it for a drive and bam...oops there it was.
Went back to the shop called the Honda America Help Desk...lol.... and I m told ac system is contaminated. .. and the entire system may have to be replaced. This per the Honda Help Desk.. lol... if so it could be a long repair .
Honda is obviously aware of this but is keeping it on a need to know basis. This service department was honestly clueless to this problem, I could read it on their faces.
So, Honda is chosen to ignore the issue, until they sells the car the are acting reactively vs proactively.
I think a class action lawsuit suit make get their attention.
I spoke with a master honda tech back east who said they have replaced the compressors on three cars at their dealership. Appears to be the fix. Unless the systems are contaminated then those repairs will fail too.
Let's see what they say.
 

fenq

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Hey guys,

2016 civic EX owner here. Yes, my AC doesn't run correctly too. When it's ~80 degrees and below, it runs like a champ. When it's 90 some degrees + humid, like yesterday in Chicago, I drove over 30 miles on a highway before it started blowing cold air. Yes, I also do have the chirping/slurping/whistling sound when the engine is idling or on low RPM, it goes away at around 2k, but maybe the sound of that just gets muted by the engine.

Anyway, I'd like to offer an insight to what might be happening based on what I've read here. It seems very unlikely that, on a brand new car straight from a dealership, many units tend have bad components given that AC system isn't an invention from the past 2 years and if you look online, between all brands and models components look pretty much identical so I wouldn't bet that Honda got unlucky and received a ton of faulty components. As some people have reported here, replacing components by dealership is pretty much a hit or miss. Some will work, some go back 2 weeks later to the dealer after having the entire system replaced.

A little back story first. We used to have in our family 2001 ford taurus, 2002 pontiac grand prix,and 2000 jetta. Old junks, but during 100 degree whether with 80% humid, the cars would get cold in 2 minutes flat. Now, my dad is a truck driver, he's got his own rig, and he had to replace the compressor because it went bad. Not because the rig was brand new and it had issues just like our Civics, but because the rig has close to 900k miles on it, and you know, stuff tends to wear out with those mileages, and the clutch in the compressor went bad. He goes to the dealership, buys a brand new OEM compressor, installs it, goes to a place to charge it up with the refrigerant, fires up the AC and.... the cold air blows for about 10 minutes and then it goes warm. He pops the hood open and there's sludge coming out the side of the compressor. We looked at it, then we looked at the old one, and there was a difference.

So the compressors for some reason have a hole in their bodies that doesn't seem to serve any purpose. They drill through the body to probably make something on the inside (I haven't taken one apart so I can't be sure). The reason why I'm saying that it probably doesn't serve any purpose is because the old compressor from dad's rig was simply plugged with a bolt, while the new one has a bleed off valve, and that's where the sludge was coming from. Now, the reason why AC works, is because it needs to build up pressure in the system. If you don't have sufficient pressure, it will just stop cooling. We've gone back to look at our junkers and guess what - those compressors also had a bolt and not a bleed off valve. My parents then bought a 2015 Jeep Cherokee and you know what? It doesn't cool as hard as our old junkers, but better than my Civic.

So what we did in the rig was we unscrewed the bleed off valve, put the bolt in there from old compressor, charged it again and wahlaa, it started working again and it has been for 2 years now without an issue. Dad has got a thermometer in one of the vents and he's got 42 degree air coming out at the lowest setting. My assumption is that all newer cars, and unfortunately I cannot tell which year it started, all have a bleed off valve instead of just a bolt. I will take a look on mine later today to confirm that and see and if I get pissed off enough, I'll do what we did on the rig and see if it helps.
 

fenq

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So I looked under the hood with my dad and couple of things we noticed. There is some sludge on the tubes coming out of compressor.

We started touching the high and low port tubes, and on the old cars they were always cold as hell. Mine were not. Also, noticed that passenger side blows cold air, driver side blows warm air.

Lastly, our new civics use the R1234yf coolant, so we're screwed. I don't believe we can retrofit it either, at least I cannot find anything on the matter. Everywhere I read about it, they say performance is the same blablabla.... the reason for the switch to the new coolant, and all new 2017 vehicles and on must have it, is because of global warming.... yes, believe it or not. It's only "slightly" flammable, which Daimler was very vocal about, but eventually they bent to the new rules as well.

Sorry, we're screwed on this one. I'm not going to replace the bleed off valve with bolt because I don't know what the hell will that do since it's new refrigerant/oil and it's flammable.
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