A different Civic SI air conditioning issue- comes on by itself

[Spiff44]

I registered here to discuss symptoms with my air conditioning. Needless to say I was disappointed to find a lengthy thread about this car’s A/C issues. But that’s a different story….


My deal is different.. my AC seems to come on all by itself when I just want to use the fan. I don’t have defrost or zone control on. I’ll just notice cold air coming out… when I go into climate settings, both buttons for AC are unselected. So it shows neither on or off. If I select “off”, then it goes off. The issue is that the symptom keeps coming back and I’m having to manually shut off the compressor.


I found similar threads on other cars but no consensus was ever reached if this was normal or not or if there was a permanent solution.


So I called 6 Honda dealerships near me to talk to a technician. I pretty much got 6 different answers above their generic “just bring it in” default reply. After advising that I would expect a reasonable diagnosis over the phone whether it was an issue or not before wasting both our time bringing it in.. I got yet more varied reply. A few said that “yeah, it sounds normal”. Only one said with any confidence that it was by design. Needless to say I take this with a grain of salt.. to this guys credit he did take my info to pick other people’s noggins before calling me back to give me that reply. When pressed on whether there was an over ride or fix for this, we were back to vague answers. None that they knew of at least.


So now I’m here to see if anyone knows more than Honda about their own cars. I just bought this 2019 Civic SI about 2 months ago. I rarely drive.. so I haven’t even used a tank of gas yet. Which is a shame because so far I love the car. This AC thing and not having a manual e-brake are my biggest gripes so far.

I hoping that I'll hear that its just on really hot days that it does this... otherwise this will get annoying fast.


Anyways, thanks in advance to any help in this matter.


Cheers

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[Spiff44]

BTW-- for this link
https://bergermontague.com/cases/honda-civic-ac-lawsuit/

It appears that Jerry Seinfeld has a second job.

 

[fenix-silver]

If you have it set to Auto, A/C will always come on as necessary.

 

[Spiff44]

I noted above that its not on zone control (auto) or defrost.

Thanks

 

[fenix-silver]

Ah sorry, didn't catch that. I'll check the behavior of my system and get back to you. I just leave it on Auto pretty much all the time.

 

[JJTHESIPLANE]

I noticed if I hit the fan on/off switch, it returns to the same function it was before it was turned on. Maybe if you turn off the compressor manually then hit the switch it'll work? Hope this helps

 

[fenix-silver]

Just checked the behavior on mine. I think when neither on or off are selected for A/C, the A/C comes on as it sees fit. I started on Auto. In the climate control settings neither on/off was selected. Changed the fan speed to take the system out of Auto. Neither on/off still not selected. I then turned the A/C off. That Off setting stuck even after turning my car off and back on.

 

[Spiff44]

Thanks for the replies.. we should be able to pin this down eventually.

I'm noticing that settings just don't stay....for example.. how do A/C on/off get set to no setting in the first place? Its not me doing it. I'll have to test, but I'm guessing that switching from AC to fan only clears the A/C On setting.. it doesn't turn it to off.. leaving it susceptible to doing what it wants.

I'm still hoping it just a high heat thing. If I have to manually turn off my AC every time I drive all year long some shit is going to hit the fan with Honda.

 

[fenix-silver]

Is there a reason you want the A/C off?

 

[Spiff44]

Well yeah.. if I want to use just the fan then that means I don't want the A/C running. It means I don't want the extra compressor clutch wear, loss of MPG or the extra cold air because I was happy with the ambient temperature.

Why have a fan setting at all if the stupid car just turns on the A/C when it feels like it?

 

[Jonmd89]

2019 si here and my car will always run the heater or a/c unless I press climate and hit a/c off every time I turn the car on

 

[Spiff44]

2019 si here and my car will always run the heater or a/c unless I press climate and hit a/c off every time I turn the car on

Yeah, see, that's BS for sure. I'm hoping its just a matter of figuring out idiosyncrasies of the controls. I need to do more testing but it seems like it might be related to the recirculate button. If I was using the auto/zone control, when I hit recirculate it turns off the auto/zone control and leaves the A/C in that limbo mode where its neither on or off.. so it does what it wants. I'm going to keep playing to see what all combo's put it into this mode and if there are ways to avoid getting it there.

 

[DrAlvarez]

Hey, dude. Frankly speaking, you won't solve this alone. You need a good a/c service. You can describe the problem at the forum and maybe someone even would tell you what to do, but that is really hard to say the real problem without seeing the car and a/c, I say it, because I had the problems with the a/c too. So better don't touch it and go to people who work with it. Thank god I have a close friend, who is works at the firm SOCOLO, it's their site - www.socool.sg/. They repair normal a/c very qualitative, but he is also a big fan of cars, so he knows what to do. I can give you his contacts, if you want.

 

[Gruber]

That's still Honda's fault, because the manual does not explain clearly how the AUTO AC works, and many drivers don't understand it.

If no AC button is highlighted in the climate controls, it means AC is on AUTO. Yes, it's on AUTO, and it will turn on or off as it sees fit, no matter what you imagine.

The light on the AUTO button will only light up if ALL the climate control is on AUTO, which also includes fan speed and recirculation. If you override AUTO by selecting your own fan speed or recirc setting, this light will go off. But the AC compressor will reman on auto control. Until you turn the AC OFF. Or ON.

 

[saiko21]

just turn the a/c off by going into climate control. hardly takes a sec. I guess Honda did that to avoid changing the infotainment ?

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