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2008-07-22

Honda Prelude Air-Cond Service

I suffering 3 months of intermittent air-cond blowing warm air in my 1992 Honda Prelude. Initially, the air cond is able to stay on longer, but as time pass by, the air cond finally never turn on for the whole month of July. On Jul 18, finally I sent my car to Dragon Auto to repair. Unluckily, the boss, Eddy does not able to see the air-cond not switch on, because he immediately connect the charger hose into the system before he examine. At later stage I realize that this procedure manage to kick start the air-cond. Since he done no repair, so he didn't charge me anything. However, he request me to drive the car over as soon as the air-cond not starting. On Jul 19, I drove the car for about 30 min, and the air-cond slowly turning off more and more regularly. I drove the over to Dragon Auto to show Eddy.

He find it strange initially, but he manage to find out that it is pressure related. I immediately recognize that Prelude air-cond will not turn on under 2 conditions:
  1. Refrigerant pressure too low
  2. Refrigerant pressure too high
My Prelude happens to be pressure too high. Maybe when I refill it last July, the temperature was cold. Therefore, the pressure was too high after fill up to 30 psi.  Another possibility is they turn on the air-cond to high position, and it cools down a lot. With pressure at 30 psi at extremely cold temperature, the pressure is too high at room temperature.

On this Saturday, Eddy released some refrigerant to reduce the pressure, and the air-cond works again.

This does not last until next day Sunday. At afternoon, I drove the car to farmers market for grocery. The air-cond stop working after 15 min.  I released some refrigerant again. As expected, the air cond able to start after that. I'm glad that I gain this knowledge, as this is not mention in Honda Prelude technical repair manual at all. The manual only said if pressure too high, it will damage the condenser.  Eddy believe it is the thermostat switch failure

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