AC relay

[repeated_love]

Hi,

Its summer and my AC stopped working in my 1994 Accord CD5. Honda said it was the relay and that'll cost $75 plus about $75 for labour and further diagnostics. Should I pay them or do the swap over myself.

Apparently the relay must be purchased from Honda, I don't know what diagnostics they're going to do.

[curtis265]

is it the blower or the actual ac?

[GU357]

Ask a few other places how much they would want to install, then ask a few wreckers if they have any.

but shouldnt honda do diagnostics to determine what needs fixing before having u throw 150$ at it then looking into it further. mechanics these days have no diagnostic ability it seems, they just keep making u pay for new bits till its fixed or the problem goes away.

[curtis265]

Ask a few other places how much they would want to install, then ask a few wreckers if they have any.

but shouldnt honda do diagnostics to determine what needs fixing before having u throw 150$ at it then looking into it further. mechanics these days have no diagnostic ability it seems, they just keep making u pay for new bits till its fixed or the problem goes away.

x10000000000000000000 my hero mechanic told me that all the monkeys that work under him just turn bolts and have no idea how things work..

begs the question - why do a job if you're not remotely interested in it?

[repeated_love]

curtis - i assume the blower still works as i still get hot air come through when its on cold, unless it require re-gasing.

gu357 - i assume he meant basic diags which came after the install i.e. to see if its working good. other than honbits are there any other wreckers who have bulk hondas, pref north of river (NOR)

i asked the tyre factory and they also said that the part must be ordered from honda but they'd install it cheaper. i lost faith in them though from the following:

had a noise in the exhaust, they sold me a brand new tail exhaust...noise kept happening and their excuse was they don't do testing on exhausts so didnt hear it.

this is the same young guy who boasted that for 5 years he enjoyed his job and really new what he was talking about.

had a mobile mechanic look at the car and he diagnosed it as the flange gasket at the front of the engine.

that reminds me i gotta follow up this issue with ttf.

[GU357]

AAA honda, is south of the river, hes a iffy bloke but he can do it.

im sure if u went to see him and asked him he would charge less to install, dunno if he would have the part though.

[grifty]

relay takes no more than 5 mins to install.... shouldnt cost more than $10-20 from the wreckers.

its probably the relay for the a/c compressor

[hmetro24]

As grifty said, it would not cost more than 10-20$ from the wrecker. the ac relay is in the engine bay(driver side) close to the headlight. Let some one turn the ac On and listen to the relay clicking. possibly need regasing ... or something else

[grifty]

theres a few dodgy ways to diagnose if its the relay or not enough pressure.

To check if its the pressure in the system, bridge the pressure switch, if the compressor starts working then you need more gas or it could be a faulty switch.

To check if its the relay, hook up a large size cable from the positive battery terminal to the a/c compressor wire, if the compressor starts working and the a/c is cold then its the relay.

If they have already diagnosed its the relay then just replace it, its pretty easy.

[repeated_love]

I'm pretty sure they diagnosed it as the relay already iirc compressor relay a big light blue block in the fuse box.

i took it in for a safety recall issue with something under the hood and just my luck the ac stopped working so i took it back.

thats when i got quoted $150. also had to take it back because oil was leaking into spark plug chambers.