A/C compressor replacement?

I am probably going to go look at a 2001 Honda CRV tomorrow. It seems like it needs an A/C compressor. I have never done any work on A/C other then pulling it out of a car. Is it pretty straight forward or do I need special tools? 

If you have a shop do the refill for you, no special tools required.

If you want to do the refill yourself you'll want a manifold + guages and a vacuum pump.  For a one time thing I'd just have a shop do the fill.

Is that K24 or B20 engined CR-V?  Something to know about the A/C compressor on the K-series is that it "hooks" into its bracket.  Also, I think the official procedure is to remove the radiator for access, but I have unbolted the right side of the subframe and the lower dogbone mount, loosened the left side a little, and levered the subframe down 4-5" instead, because I don't like opening fluid systems if I can avoid it.

If it is a B20, disregard all of this.

If you take the compressor off and you find anything but spotlessly cleanness and refrigerant oil in the smaller of the two lines, go ahead and replace the condensor, because it's full of debris and you can't really flush them due to the design. (Usually the debris is seen as a kind of greyish schmutz, sometimes with fine glitter)  If you see the schmutz in BOTH lines, go ahead and replace everything including the evaporator, unless you want to get a lot of practice at replacing compressors.

When a compressor fails, the condensor usually acts as a collector for the debris.  Sometimes it does not, and the debris gets thoroughly circulated.   Hondas that suffered from "gray death" usually needed a fully loaded parts cannon because the compressor failure was not something dramatic and sudden that sent large shrapnel into the condensor, but a long, slow, lingering death sending fine paste throughout the whole system.

In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :

It is a First gen so it should be a B20. 

Does everything include all the lines?

Replace the drier when you do that compressor.  Also, it is a good idea to back flush the evaporator coil if the compressor failed catastrophically.  "ZOMG DOODE YOU MUST PULL A VACUUM OR YOU'LL DIE FER SURE" or whatever.  You can put it all back together, throw in a can or two (look to see how much the system takes) with a can tap hose that cost a few bucks and it will work fine. The new drier will catch any moisture that managed to get in there from the atmosphere and the system will probably outlast the rest of the car.

It was my understanding that if you do pull a vacuum, no need to replace the drier.  All of the mositure in there will boil off, making it good as new.

Really the best part of a vacuum is it tells you if the system is leak free or not.

In reply to Dr. Hess (Forum Supporter) :

The vacuum is super important for two reasons.

First, air is a horrible refrigerant, as it does not condense and evaporate at the pressures and temperatures we are concerned with.  So, the air conditioning system will be really inefficient.  It is not unlike running a car with EGR all the time.

Second, and probably even more importantly, the vacuum will boil out the moisture in the system.  That is why you pull it under a good strong vacuum for a half hour to an hour, so all the moisture can boil off and get removed.  Otherwise why bother replacing that drier, you're just going to saturate it right away.

ProDarwin said:

Really the best part of a vacuum is it tells you if the system is leak free or not.

So, at work, we have one of those modern Robinair A/C machines that does everything for you like take into account the weight of the refrigerant in the lines and stuff, and one of the other things it does is an automatic leak check, where after you pull the system under a vacuum it will hold the vacuum and watch for a drop.

Last week, I had a late model Malibu (NICE car, BTW, and I liked the way GM used simple trig to make the rear stabilizer bar ride height dependent for its usefulness) that presented with an empty system,  I pulled it under a vacuum for 30 minutes with a leak check at the end.  Passed the leak check.  Added refrigerant with 1 ounce of dyed oil.  Before the machine had even pumped 200g of refrigerant in, I could see dye flowing out of the condensor like it was a Predator that took a 12 gauge slug to the stomach.  ABORT ABORT EVACUATE SYSTEM  NOW!!!  There were actual rivulets of oil flowing out of the holed tube.

But it passed a vacuum check.

It was at that point that I decided to never bother with it again.  It didn't catch the leak in my Volvo's condensor either, and it was a relatively slow leak - it would lose 750g in two days, not two minutes!

I have only ever done the home level stuff.  I used to pull a vacuum on the system and then just let it sit overnight and see if the needle moved at all by the next day when I came back.

I haven't messed with A/C for a while and I am thankful for that.  Messing with it on the Saturn was such a pain in the ass.  The system was leak free but I could never get the pressures to be right... not enough delta between high and low and I had replaced both the TXV and the compressor.

My truck will hold vacuum overnight and yet I still need to add refrigerant to it once a year. I'm sure there is a small leak somewhere. 

If you're going to the trouble to fix an A/C system, do yourself a favor and buy an OEM compressor from the dealer.  A cheapo parts store reman might just leak out all your refrigerant two days after the warranty period is up.  Ask me how I know. 

Edit:  Not a lot of info in your first post.  Are you sure the compressor is bad?  How reliable are Honda's systems?  Might it just be the compressor clutch?

Most of the time new compressors require receiver/drier replacement at the same time or you void the warranty.  

At some point I decided I'd rather rebuild the old junk I had than pay someone. I bought the HF gauges and vacuum pump. The pump is great, the gauges are only ok.

Many leaks seal under vacuum but leak under pressure. Think about pulling a seal inward vs pushing it outward. I've always thought it would be better to design a test system that pumped up the system and held to test for leaks, then vacuumed it down. 

+1 on dealer part compressors if you can swing it.

CRV AC systems are notoriously problematic. I actually had to do my daughters CRV AC repair last week. I live and breathe Hondas but even I admit the AC system can be troublesome.

If you're doing a compressor, go ahead and throw a condensor at it regardless. It's less than 50 bucks and that erases any worries about sludge being carried through the system. A new drier is roughly 10 bucks. 

I shot the entire parts cannon at my daughter's car last week and it was somewhere around 400 dollars including a new serpentine belt. I changed every component except the hose and hard line. Those I flushed thoroughly. Swapping the evaporator was a bit annoying. My old back doesn't like bending over and working under dashes as well as it once did.

Just order a kit.  It will come with compressor, oil, expansion valve, accumulator, o-rings, and everything you need.  Some of them come with a flush fluid which is helpful because sometimes a failing compressor sends debris into the lines.  I recommend flushing it all, but you can skip the evaporator and condenser.  A lot of times those are super hard to flush and ends up just leaving the debris in the bottom instead of actually flushing it.

But the lines should be flushed.  I'm sure you can come up with creative ways to do that with gravity and/or an air compressor.

It's important to use a flush fluid that is designed for A/C systems.  Don't supplement with acetone or brake cleaner for a couple reasons.  1) it could eat the rubber parts, and 2) flush fluid is designed to definitely evaporate under the vacuum that is drawn before charging.  I often go an extra step and draw vacuum a few times and open one side to allow a flow of fresh air through being careful not to evacuate the oil.  The vacuum evaporates the liquid, then the flow lets it escape so it doesn't recondense after you return pressure to the system.  I have no idea if it's necessary, but it makes me feel better.

If you need working AC buy a car with working AC. I bought a Nissan SE-R years ago with broken AC thinking I would jus throw a couple of bucks at it and no problem. Wrong. No matter how many times I had my mechanic fix it, it never got more than semi cool. Mechanic said that when compressor went it sprayed metal bits into the system. He flushed multiple times, replaced parts. Never worked. I won't buy a car with broken AC ever again 

I decided not to buy it. I couldn't talk them down on price and I would have ended up needing to more work then it was worth.

This is relevant to me, so thanks for the suggestions.  '08 Fit that's new to me.  Bought it on a Friday, A/C worked great through the weekend and for my son's trip back up to Denton on Monday.  Worked all day Tuesday.  Wednesday morning, no A/C.  Compressor isn't kicking on.  Replaced the relay (easy/cheap fix), but no luck.  Stuck one of the gauges from a canister kit on it while the engine was running and got zero pressure (or is it vacuum?).  I'm assuming a major leak, perhaps a line popped off, because the system should be pressurized even if the compressor isn't kicking on, correct?

When he's able to come back down, we'll go through the whole thing, but I'm baffled that it went from ice cold to nothing overnight.  I would have assumed a leak would have gotten slowly worse over time.  Not go from full A/C to zero.

-Rob

If the relay was bad, it would have caused the compressor to overpressure the system and blow the refrigerant out of the high presure blowoff valve, which on  Fit IIRC is on the top of the driver side of the compressor.  The relays fail in the "stuck on" mode.

Have a Civic that did the same thing 20 feet from me actually 

Or it could have done something boring like taken a rock to the condensor.

For what its worth I had to repair our 2006 CRV air conditioning compressor this weekend. Not a bad job. A few hints/ tips below so hopefully someone will benefit from it in the future.

I followed this link that another member forwarded to me:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcIucjQL3cA

BUT with a few changes to his procedure.

Before you start getting to the AC compressor remove the plastic radiator top cover under the hood. Its a few plactic clips and a 10mm bolt for the battery hold down.

Then remove the plastic engine under tray completely (in my case I had a few straggler clips and let it hang/ rest on the floor. Be careful as its brittle stubborn clips.

Remove the front bumper. Its not as bad or hard as it sounds. In each wheel well there is a hidden phillips head where the bumper meets the metal fender. Remove a bunch of clips. Pull the bumper cover corners (by the wheel well) forward and the pop and unclip. Pull the bumper cover off.

Remove the passenger side headlight. Two bolts near the top, one under the headlight near the grill area.

At this point the whole front end is exposed and you have all the room in the world to work. You dont even have to jack up the car for all this.

Remove the radiator upper support brackets to allow the radiator to rock back and forth.

Remove condenser upper support brackets.

Remove radiator overflow bottle and wiggle it out by prying back radiator. (10 mm bolt) You can let it rest on the engine without totally removing it.

Remove passenger side fan. Two 10mm bolts and one electrical connection and unplug AC compressor plug.

At this point you need to remove the belt (14mm tensioner bolt I believe), remove the condenser lines and the condenser (transfer lower rubber mounting plugs) then unbolt the AC compressor itself. (12mm bolts) Lift it up between the radiator and front end core support area.  

The rest is just opposite of removal essentially but the removal steps help make this a way easier job.

I hope this helps someone out. I know its hastily written but its a simple primer to go along with the video. I was dreading the job after reading about dropping the subframe but its just not needed to do this job.

Good luck!

PRO TIP: When ordering parts (especially offline) order new bumper/ under tray clips. You WILL break several.

CarKid1989 said:

 

PRO TIP: When ordering parts (especially offline) order new bumper/ under tray clips. You WILL break several.

Amazon will sell you 100 of them stupid cheap. 

I recently did this job too. Everyone here has heard me crow on and on about how Hondas are superior. While changing the compressor I learned that Honda put little hooks on the compressor bracket and on the compressor. You can hang the compressor in its place and then start the bolts at your leisure. It's not necessary to hold the compressor in the right place with one hand, wiggle it around, and finally get the bolts started.

Bloody frikkin brilliant. They didn't have to put those little hooks there. But the mechanic benefits mightily that they did. And that's reason number 11 billion why I love Hondas. 

In reply to CarKid1989 :

If you have a lift and air tools, dropping the subframe (not removing, just angling down a few inches) allows you to replace the compressor in under 30 minutes with practice   That is the only reason I do it that way.  That and I don't like working down in a hole if I can avoid it.

I WOULD like to know what special tool you're supposed to use for that infernal Honda push clips, the ones where there is no access channel to pop the center out.  I've tried all sorts of them, always end up just using a small screwdriver to get a foothold and then using a pincher type remover.

Good to know Pete. Wow, thats a great turn around time for compressor removal.

This thread is ripe with info for the interwebs!