Air conditioning condenser issue is real

Voltron

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Add me to the club. My 2016 Civic Touring 40,300 miles recently went in for a checkup and they took 6 hours to tell me that:

- Condenser and compressor need to be replaced. No sign of road damage.
- I had reported an additional symptom that the driver side is blowing hot whereas passenger side is maybe 5 degrees cooler (still not COLD). Service Advisor stated that even after replacing the AC components, there may be an issue inside the dashboard near driver side that would continue to prevent adequate AC flow. She referenced an "article", but I can't find it.

On top of all of this the parts are "backordered for months", so they can't even do the [quoted] almost $1800 repair if I wanted to pay it.

Service Advisor "sent an email to Honda Corporate" to ask for some good will assistance, but she hasn't heard back from them yet.

So here I am, Southern California, waiting to hear back if I should be selling my not even 4 year old Civic and going somewhere else. Disappointing. It's been such an awesome car.
The exact same thing has just happened to my car with 40,050 miles here in hot So. Cal. Warm air out of drivers side vents, then whole system went warm a week later. Out of warranty and dealer wants $145 diagnostic fee. Im pretty pissed and not sure what to do at the moment.
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SpoolAndGo

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My A/C was cool (not cold) while on the lowest fan speed, but warm once the fan speed was turned up. The dealer found no leaks and a recharge got my A/C working again. However, I still have a faint chirping/fluttering noise so I suspect something is still wrong. The service advisor said "good thing it wasn't your condenser, I have two people waiting for one and they're on backorder."

I'm just shy of 24,000 miles and bought the car new in August of 2017.
 

santino405

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My A/C was cool (not cold) while on the lowest fan speed, but warm once the fan speed was turned up. The dealer found no leaks and a recharge got my A/C working again. However, I still have a faint chirping/fluttering noise so I suspect something is still wrong. The service advisor said "good thing it wasn't your condenser, I have two people waiting for one and they're on backorder."

I'm just shy of 24,000 miles and bought the car new in August of 2017.
Yeah that's BS. Refrigerant is not supposed to leak so much out of a 2 year old car that it starts to effect cooling performance. You have a leak some where and the dealer was too lazy to find it.
Make sure you have it taken care of before your warranty expires and you have to repair the unit out of pocket like many of us here have.
 

SpoolAndGo

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Yeah that's BS. Refrigerant is not supposed to leak so much out of a 2 year old car that it starts to effect cooling performance. You have a leak some where and the dealer was too lazy to find it.
Make sure you have it taken care of before your warranty expires and you have to repair the unit out of pocket like many of us here have.
My thoughts exactly. I know it is possible that it had a low charge from the factory, but I think a leak is more likely the culprit.
 


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I just had the COMPRESSOR of my car replaced at 20,000 miles. It was fine around town, but got choked out on road trips (90min+). I could hear the fan running, but almost nothing was coming out of the vents. After resting the AC for some time it would work again, and then gradually quit as time went on. Extended Warranty covered the replacement.

Hopefully the new compressor lasts, but just wanted to add credence to the mantra...THE AC ISSUE IS REAL!!!!
 
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How many of these until they issue a recall? The pattern of low use AC failures has to have triggered an investigation, no?
 

SCOPESYS

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I just had the COMPRESSOR of my car replaced at 20,000 miles. It was fine around town, but got choked out on road trips (90min+). I could hear the fan running, but almost nothing was coming out of the vents. After resting the AC for some time it would work again, and then gradually quit as time went on. Extended Warranty covered the replacement.

Hopefully the new compressor lasts, but just wanted to add credence to the mantra...THE AC ISSUE IS REAL!!!!
From what I am reading over the past year, REFRIGERANT leakage is the REAL ISSUE with CivicX A/C systems. Where the systems leak is a little more complex, but most Dealers seem to be blaming Condenser Damage, due to Road Debris, that is not typically covered under warranty.

For many customer's, A/C repair appears to be shrouded in mystery, and has a perceived appearance of being very expensive to do, something that Dealers have no problem keeping a Mystery, and charging ridiculously high repair fees for.

They symptoms above are typical of Low Refrigerant level. Whether the system REALLY need a new Compressor or not, I would not know, but since the system is going to need some work done on it (to inflate the bill), changing the compressor would seem to be a good move, and/or a new Condenser, if it shows ANY sign of physical damage -- especially as that damage can be blamed on the customer.

If the system has lost ALL Refrigerant, then yes, the Dealer will need to supply a full charge of Refrigerant, and that is relatively expensive for the new R1234yf refrigerant -- but not nearly as costly to the Dealer as they would lead you to believe, when they charge you such a obscene markup just on the refrigerant.

If the system is just low, and they decide to change any say the Compressor or Condenser, then they have to empty the system, but YOUR refrigerant goes back into their machine & is RE-Cycled !! so when they re-charge your system, you are in effect getting your old recycled Refrigerant back, PLUS a small amount of new Refrigerant -- but you are "probably" being billed for a full charge of vastly inflated costly refrigerant.

When I read that one member was charged something like $2400 for a A/C repair, I was both shocked, amazed, and angry that such overcharging was happening at car dealerships.
 
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Hopefully they fixed the problem, or it represents itself before the Extended Warranty coverage expires. Either way, I won't know until I take another road trip... FINGERS CROSSED!!!
 


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Back on 5/28/19 I purchased a 2016 Civic EX from my local dealer with just over 45,000 miles on it. No extended warranty. About 2 Weeks into owning it, the A/C went out, took it into the dealer. They of course charged me $58 to check it out, they came back and said I had a pin hole in the condenser. They then said that it would need a new condenser, evaced and recharged with the new freon for $715 +/-. HOWEVER I noticed this morning that the passenger side of the a/c system seems to be working as it should. I stuck a thermometer in and it was giving about 47°. The driver side is a different story. All it does is blow warm air, 60-65-70°. I'm completely stumped, how could there be no freon in the system but yet the passenger side blows cold air all day long and the driver side blows warm air? Is the condenser fine? Could it be another issue? Any an all help is really appreciated!
 

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Back on 5/28/19 I purchased a 2016 Civic EX from my local dealer with just over 45,000 miles on it. No extended warranty. About 2 Weeks into owning it, the A/C went out, took it into the dealer. They of course charged me $58 to check it out, they came back and said I had a pin hole in the condenser. They then said that it would need a new condenser, evaced and recharged with the new freon for $715 +/-. HOWEVER I noticed this morning that the passenger side of the a/c system seems to be working as it should. I stuck a thermometer in and it was giving about 47°. The driver side is a different story. All it does is blow warm air, 60-65-70°. I'm completely stumped, how could there be no freon in the system but yet the passenger side blows cold air all day long and the driver side blows warm air? Is the condenser fine? Could it be another issue? Any an all help is really appreciated!
I recall other posts that describe something similar: The driver's side is the first to blow warm air in the case of a failing AC system.

So your system isn't completely empty yet. But it's obviously leaking.

Go ahead and get in line now. Condensers are back-ordered all over the country. Also there's a new part number. No idea if the new ones are a little more robust than the old. But, if you get a chance, get the new one.

I can't put my hands on all of these posts right now. But everything I mentioned above has come from the numerous threads about AC issues.

Also... consider buying the black gutter guard from Home Depot and protect the new condenser. The new one will be just as exposed to road debris as the old one.

And good luck.
 

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Just adding another "yup me too" post -- as much to vent as anything. Bought the car new almost 3 years ago, so still under warranty a bit longer. ONLY like 14K miles on the car -- basic suburban driving, no craziness. But the same thing: passenger air blows cool -- but not nice and CHILLY -- and driver-me gets nothing but hot air in his face. The condenser has what looks like a black spot of discoloration. So I'm guessing poor car is another victim. Taking it to the dealership where I bought it, next week. They said expect to be there 3-4 hours. lol. Great. Fully expecting a fight over cost, them pretending there isn't a nationwide issue, and hoping they'll do the right thing.

Hope that new part number means they've figured out the problem -- cause why won't this just happen again?

Bleeping Honda. This is my second one. The first I purchased new in 1998, and while it lasted a long time, it had some sort of clear-coat paint defect on the dark colored cars such that over time the paint started to FADE and look like dull white clouds all over the surface!! Like it had a flesh-eating virus. Does anyone see those earlier Accords with that? I see them often. WHY did I go with them again?? Probably thought I got my bad luck out of the way with the paint defect. Never again. I wouldn't mind if they at least would own up when they mess up, and fix things for us.

I'll chime back in after the dealership adventure!
 

JamesV1

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Got back from the shop and i have a few leaks in the system, will be replaced under warranty with no cost. I cant find any solid info on it the seals were updated in the new condensor?

I have that same chirpy fluttery sound but its barely noticable. Theres alot of things that it could be within but i dont think its a real issue
 

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How many of these until they issue a recall? The pattern of low use AC failures has to have triggered an investigation, no?
Technically it's not considered a safety issue, so no recall will ever take place. I disagree, but I'm not in charge. Honda's doing all they can to sweep the issue under the rug.
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