Civic Condenser can last only three years?

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fuhongl

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Just an update on my AC issue:

So I thought it was condensor, brought to the closest dealer, they said my compressor is leaking and need replacement, but condenser is fine. They charged me $163 for diagnosis because it is not covered by warranty and wants $2100 to repair.
I was like hell no. So I took my civic to the dealer who made my repair first time in 2019, surprisingly, they said everything is fine, compressor and condensor, they charged a can of R1234YF and it's been running cold air for two weeks....

I don't know what to believe now. Keep my fingers cross the charge doesn't run out soon. if only needs one charge per season, that is much better than repairing the compressor.
Curious, now I don't hear the hiss sound when it turns on. Is that a good sign? But they didn't repair anything.

Honda AC is a total enigma. No one can figure out.
 

BriteBlue

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Pop the hood open, There will be a plastic cover in the front which is fastened by multiple push pins. You can use a screw driver to wedge the push pins out (circled them in red for you) and take that piece off. The sticker should be on the right hand side of the condenser at the top. Let me know what the supplier is once you find out! Just curious!
Thanks -
Here's a photo of mine. Does not end in A01 or A02 but does have an A011 in the number. Does ending in A01 mean any number with an A01 near the end or literally ending in A01?

Honda Civic 10th gen Civic Condenser can last only three years? IMG_4845C
 

engineering

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Thanks -
Here's a photo of mine. Does not end in A01 or A02 but does have an A011 in the number. Does ending in A01 mean any number with an A01 near the end or literally ending in A01?

IMG_4845C.jpg

It means any number with A01 at the end. My original condenser (Pic Below) had the same part number as yours except mine was made in the US so that might have been where the faulty condensers were made from. The new condenser they replaced mine with is now made by Mahle (different supplier) instead of Keihin and has a A02 part number at the end of it.

Honda Civic 10th gen Civic Condenser can last only three years? 1652498288791
 

BriteBlue

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It means any number with A01 at the end. My original condenser (Pic Below) had the same part number as yours except mine was made in the US so that might have been where the faulty condensers were made from. The new condenser they replaced mine with is now made by Mahle (different supplier) instead of Keihin and has a A02 part number at the end of it.
Thanks again for the information. I realize not every car with an A01 condenser gets it replaced. However I never had to replace a condenser in any car. Will just have to hope for the best.
 


dick w

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I never had to replace a condenser in any car
I've only ever had AC problems with three cars. We had a 2009 BMW 135i. It was on its third evaporator core when we sold it at almost five years and 22k miles. That model was notorious for this issue.

Our 2016 Civic and 2018 CR-V have, between them, needed a compressor, return hose, clutch and coil pack (for the CR-V), condenser, evaporator, and expansion valve (for the Civic). That's in something like 37k miles of service.

We've owned 10 Honda/Acura cars from new since 1986 with something like 458k miles and 60 vehicle-years of Honda/Acura experience.

This generation of Honda has serious AC issues.
 

BriteBlue

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The Civic replaces my wife's 1989 Camry where she was the original owner. I added a can of R12 refrigerant when it was 24 or 25 years old. That lasted a few more years & the AC was starting to act up before we replaced it with the Civic.

I had high expectations for the Civic's quality because of all the great reviews it got, plus it was supposedly the number one selling compact car. I appreciate that Honda extended the warranty on the condenser. But they also extended the warranty on the engine because of oil dilution problems. That's 2 strikes against quality.
 

usagora

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Here's the thing. A bunch of us have bought a section of this from Home Depot and cut it to fit in front of the otherwise vulnerable condenser. Honda has been very specific in saying they will *not* replace leaking condensers damaged by road debris.

IMG_20190621_192725.jpg
I'm a bit skeptical about this. This would alter the airflow from the way Honda engineered it for the specific vehicle. This is such a simple alteration, that I find it hard to believe that if it were truly beneficial that Honda would not have designed it this way to begin with unless there's a good reason they didn't.
 

dick w

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I find it hard to believe that if it were truly beneficial that Honda would not have designed it this way to begin with unless there's a good reason they didn't.
In general, I always defend the original engineers. They know more than we do.

In specific, one can never ignore the possibility that they didn't do something like this because it would have added $0.98 to the parts bill making the car.
 

usagora

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In general, I always defend the original engineers. They know more than we do.

In specific, one can never ignore the possibility that they didn't do something like this because it would have added $0.98 to the parts bill making the car.
Except that "$0.98" could've easily been cancelled out by cost-saving in a non-critical area, so I don't really think that's the likely reason.
 


dick w

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I bet there aren't many easy ways to save elsewhere in building a Civic. When you are about to make a million of something, you work *very* hard to eliminate all of those ahead of time. I bet they wish they'd put just a couple of bucks *more* into all the 10th gen AC components by now. The warranty claims have to be killing them.

Besides, if the condenser fails from road hazard--which this ostensibly protects against--they know you are going to eat it not them.
 

usagora

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I bet there aren't many easy ways to save elsewhere in building a Civic. When you are about to make a million of something, you work *very* hard to eliminate all of those ahead of time. I bet they wish they'd put just a couple of bucks *more* into all the 10th gen AC components by now. The warranty claims have to be killing them.

Besides, if the condenser fails from road hazard--which this ostensibly protects against--they know you are going to eat it not them.
I bet there are. Besides, they could simply pass that insignificant cost on to customers and they won't even notice. But then again I don't think money is the issue here, but engineering.

Anyway, not going to keep going back and forth on this. I have no intentions of restricting the airflow to my condenser. Maybe Honda could design a retractable shield that works with Honda sensing that detects sizable incoming debris and immediately reacts to deflect it and then retracts again to restore airflow 😉
 

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I'm a bit skeptical about this. This would alter the airflow from the way Honda engineered it for the specific vehicle. This is such a simple alteration, that I find it hard to believe that if it were truly beneficial that Honda would not have designed it this way to begin with unless there's a good reason they didn't.
All I can say is that I haven't seen any difference on my temp gauge since installing it. But every spring; I see the 'failed AC' threads pop up as the weather gets warm. And I hear the frustration when Honda denies the warranty claims because of damage from road debris.
 

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So my Si's condenser is a ticking time bomb? A/C's been working good so far.

Honda Civic 10th gen Civic Condenser can last only three years? 20220517_093349
 

Hats_N_Hoodies

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I just had my car in at the dealership. Leaking condenser. Covered under warranty luckily.


Knowing a good mechanic would be the only other saving grace if they deemed it to be damaged by road debris or "rodents chewing wires" like my service manager tried to explain to me. I don't know what they would have quoted for repairs had it been for one of those reasons but I would imagine in the 1000$-1500$ range.
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