1997 civic idle and air conditioning click problem. HELP!

Ok, so I posted earlier abouta rough idle that i was having with my civic. It still shakes when the air conditioner is on and the car is in idle. When the air conditioning is not on the car runs great. I turned on the air conditioning today and then i noticed the air is no where near as cold as it should be. I checked the car with the a/c off and everything ran fine, then i had my friend click the a/c button from the car then i noticed at the from that the engine idle drops and right before it kicks back up the a/c compressor at the front clicks. The car runs for a few seconds, then the idle drops and then goes back up, but the a/c clicks again. It continues this cycle. I was told the freon level may be low and that is where that click is from. But what about the idle drop? Does this have anything to do with the radiator levels .... could it be the compressor not functioning properly that is doing the wear on the engine... and what is that click?! From reading the posts i notice that the radiator and a/c work together and there are a lot of posts similar, but i could not find one like my problem. The idle dropping and comming back up with a click from the compressor, what could it be?

Also.... the morning before it happened i could see the air vapor comming out of the vents in the car... don't know if this connects to anything, but that is the last detail i could remember. Now it just blows warm air, thanks in advance for any direction and i will keep you updated if you reply. I am facinated and want to learn more about a honda system. I am used to big gas guzzling American cars.

Reply to
shamirm
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snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@m73g2000cwd.googlegroups.com:

the "click" is probably the electric clutch that drives the compressor turning on and off. IIRC,there's also a signal to the engine control module to speed up the idle to compensate for the extra AC load.That could be a problem area.

The "air vapor" you saw coming out of the vents may have been the freon leaking out from a failed AC evaporator. (next to the heater core in the inside air system)

The lubrication for the compressor is contained in the freon,so you lost that,so it's not a good idea to keep running the AC until you get it serviced.Otherwise,you wear out the seals in the compressor,and its expensive to replace.

depending on the year of your Civic,the coolant is R134a or the older obsolete freon R12. *The two are not interchangeable.*

It would help to buy a service manual for your model and year. For the no-cool problem,I'd see an AC professional. Tell him as much info as you can,ask for an estimate first.

Reply to
Jim Yanik

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