krhorrocks

Posted a while back about my passenger side foot well getting wet from something under the dash. Turns out is was the kinked drain for the airconditioner as many of you mentioned. However, I apparently didn't fix it in time because about an hour after I unkinked it the airconditioner stopped working all together. Took it to the dealer and it turns out my compressor detonated (their words). Sent shrapnel throughout the whole system and just about everything needed to be replaced. Cost to Honda of that plus rear window replacement was over $3,000!! I guess my extended warranty just paid for itself. So if you're past warranty and you get a little water, fix it immediately.

-Kris

lvs2k

I can't quite see how the leak could have been related to compressor failure. What did Honda say?

krhorrocks

It wasn't a leak. It was a kinked drain line. The compressor sweats a lot in high humidity and normally drains out to the road. That's why you get wet spots under the car during the summer. Well, the kinked drain caused the water to back up and somehow put pressure back on the piston(s?) in the compressor and BOOM!

Jeff

[QUOTE]Originally posted by krhorrocks
[B]It wasn't a leak.

lvs2k

I beg to differ, but the compressor does not drain. I'm aware of the drain under the car, but it comes from the humidity that is captured when warm, humid air contacts the cold coil, which condenses the humidty which in turn drains. This activity is not directly related to the compressor. You know how your iced drink sweats when it's sitting on the bar. That's the same principal at work in your AC. The cold coil sweats, drips and drains water as it cools the air passing over it, removing the humidity at the same time.

Jeff

[QUOTE]Originally posted by lvs2k
[B]I beg to differ, but the compressor does not drain.

smyroad

If the water backed up enough it would cover part or all of the evaporator coil. this may sound strange, but here it goes: The ac cycle is a balance, the compressor turns the freon in to a liquid and heats it up. The freon passes through the evaporator coil (part inside the car that provides cooled air) which evaporates the freon. Evaporating the freon cools it down and the warm inside air passing through the coil heats the freon back up again. The freon passes through the condensor coil (in front of the radiator) which passes cools the freon again. Thefreon then passes in to thecondensor where the gas is compressed into liquid an the cycle starts again.

smyroad

Sorry I didn't mean to send that out yet let me finish the post...

So the compressor compresses the gas into liquid (heating freon).

The evaporator turns the liquid into a gas (cooling freon)

Inside air passes through the evaporator coil (heating freon)

Outside air passes through condensor coil (cooling freon)

The cycle is a zero sum game. At the end the cooling must equal the heating +/- built in regulation.

If the evaporator is blocked by water, the freon will not heat up enough. First sympyom is that the water will freeze. The second symptom is that the freon cools down enough that the evaporator can not turn it into gas and eventually liquid freon enters the compressor.

Rule #1 is that the copressor can not compress liguid or else it will fail catstrophically! (insert smiley explosion)

TRICKS46

Have they made a NEW kind of A/C? What happened to the limiting switches, pressure regulators to inguage and shut off the clutch on the compressor? I can not see even after the explinations how the condensation backing up could do anything more than put more humidity into the car. In the event that it submerged totally in water it would either blow water out of the vents or freeze in which case no air would get through. I would be interested in what the cause of this is, if it is not what the poster says.

RT

I think the compressor did not disengage at high RPM (for whatever reason) and was simply spun too fast.