It’s hot in Florida and AC quit on Honda Odyssey

[Bennett Fleisher]

Hi all,

It got up to 97 in central Florida yesterday and my wife left work in the early evening. The A/C was working fine on our 07 Odyssey when she left, but called me about 10 minutes after she left to say the A/C quit working. I spent about an hour trying to troubleshoot it last night.

First thing I did was put a 134a gauge on the low line with the engine off and it read ~70psi which proves it has refrigerant. I then started the van and noticed the clutch was not activating hence the compressor was not coming on. I checked the underhood and cabin fuse, and both checked out to be fine. Next I swapped the compressor relay with the fan relay, but still the clutch would not activate.

Is there some way to test clutch itself or where do I start to test if power is getting to the clutch itself? I have the shop manual which does list the steps to test the coil to the clutch, but I am hoping there is something easier that can be done to isolate where the problem is.

Thanks

Topic

[Bennett Fleisher]

I found a post on the Oddy club forum that I think pinpoints the issue, although I did not test the coil resistance, everything else seems exactly the same and seems somewhat common on these compressors.

Link to Oddy forum

[Andrew Phillips]

I did indicate in my previous post that the clutch could be suspect, and gave you a test in this reply (#137433) how to test if the clutch was working or not. If you do that you will know conclusively if your compressor and clutch are in working order or not.

[Bennett Fleisher]

Thanks cap, I finally gave up and took it to a local shop. According to the mechanic that fixed it, the issue was a cracked shaft. He ended up replacing the compressor and the pressure switch, as he said the pressure switch was faulty as well. He was not sure if they were related, but he did not charge extra labor for the pressure switch.

Anyway, it is blowing cold again, and hopefully it stays that way for many more years.

[Andrew Phillips]

I’m not quite sure I agree with the diagnosis, but for the amount of money that probably cost I’m sure they were able to fix the real problem. Anyway, it’s working again, and summer is nearly here (it’s already over 100 here in Arizona), so thanks for the update, and enjoy your nice cold A/C 🙂

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