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There is some consensus out there that if you live where you must affix a front license plate, that its location is poor in that it restricts some of the much needed air to get thru the condenser, which causes the system to have to work harder than necessary. I suspect that people who spend more time in city stop and go as opposed to highway running, probably have a greater incidence of failures, but a poll like that is hard to get stats on. Too many variables.
I will say that the temperature of the air in my CRV is the coldest of any car I have ever owned in the past.
Hondas.. as a rule, are very reliable and do give good expected service life. It is unfortunate that A/C not only happens to be a weak spot with them even in later generations than the majority here posting, but when they do fail, it takes out the entire system. It is the compressor design that is the culprit because it is the component responsible for first creating debris, and then of course circulating that debris throughout the system.
Using the compressor for a few minutes in the off season is a good idea. Further, if you anticipate a high rpm situation, like an aggressive pass on a two lane, I click my compressor off so that it does not endure revs above 4000 or so rpm. Not sure if that helps or not but makes sense to me.
Called American Honda asked why the extended warranty for clutch turns to whole AC systems failure due to air compressor.
The answer from American Honda was that they never aware of AC compressor issue. The only thing they are aware of is clutch and coil. Sorry, you are on your own.
My lesson learned from today's experience are,
First, if there is any issue, even minor issue, as long as under warranty, check with dealer asap. I waited for two years to finally visit dealership.
Second, I will never buy a Honda. Actually my wife is looking at new Acura MDX as her TL is getting old. After today's experience, I'd say, Honda, ‚³‚悤‚È‚ç
don't be fooled by a name change .... It is a Honda ... Never again will there be a Honda product in my garage .......
I also have a 2004 MDX (bought mine used in 2008 off an Israeli gynecologist whose wife wanted something bigger) and have not had an A/C problem yet (~120,000 miles on the car).
Somehow we never got the notice that the A/C clutch assembly warranty had been extended. So we put up with it, thinking that since we were over the 50,000 mile warranty, so there was no recourse. It's not so bad living without A/C in Vermont most of the time.
Last Sunday we started hearing a grinding sound from the engine compartment. I was guessing that it was a water pump bearing or A/C compressor. Leaning toward the A/C compressor since the A/C had died earlier. Just in case it was something really bad, we parked the car.
On that Sunday I filled out the online contact request form on the website for Gerrish Honda in Lebanon, NH, where we had bought the car. I asked them if there was an extended warranty on the A/C. I stated that our A/C had quit recently. I told them that there was a grinding noise that had me concerned and that I thought might be related. I said that if there was an extended warranty that I wanted to schedule an appointment to get it taken care of right away. Gave them my email address, phone number and VIN. I received an automatic email acknowledgement of my request shortly thereafter.
On Monday morning, I took time off from work to take the car to my local mechanic to ask about the grinding sound. He said it was almost certainly the A/C compressor. He recommended that I get it in for repair soon, but that I should be OK for a few miles. Parked the car.
Monday passed, no reply from Gerrish Honda. Car sat in the driveway.
Tuesday passed, still no reply from Gerrish Honda. On Tuesday evening we had to drive the car about 20 miles. Since Gerrish Honda had not replied for over 48 hours it seemed reasonable to assume that they did not consider it a huge concern. Just as we pulled into the driveway there was a loud SNAP! Blap Blap Blap. Shut the car off and found that the serpentine belt had snapped.
Wednesday morning called Gerrish Honda and asked about the email I had sent on Sunday. Receptionist (or whatever) said she had forwarded it to service on Monday and that I should have heard from them. Talked to the service department at Gerrish Honda and they didn't seem to know about my email. They did tell me that there was an extended warranty on the A/C clutch. I told them that the serpentine belt had snapped and that I was pretty sure it was a seized A/C compressor. They recommended that I get the car in for them to look at.
Wednesday afternoon I had the car towed to Gerrish Honda. Progressive Insurance paid for that - I recommend them. Couple of hours later got a call from Gerrish Honda telling me that the compressor had seized. They assured me that it had absolutely nothing to do with the A/C Clutch. Whatever. In any case they said it would be $1130 to replace the compressor, serpentine belt and that the clutch and coil were included with the compressor. I was told that even if I had brought the car in when the A/C failed this summer and they had done the extended warranty work, the compressor would have probably failed anyways.
So, I have two issues here:
First, if Gerrish Honda had called back Monday or Tuesday, I would have most likely made an appointment and got the car towed in to look at the grinding sound, and they would have found a problem with the compressor BEFORE a catastrophic failure.
Second, and the REAL issue is that, why the hell is an A/C compressor failing on a car with 65,000 miles on it? Honda just settled a class action lawsuit last year for earlier model Honda cars with A/C compressor problems. Just a casual web search will show that the problem is still very much unresolved. If anyone knows of a new class action lawsuit or is interested in starting one, just leave a message here or email me. Address is my user name at yahoo dot com.
And on the off chance that someone at Gerrish Honda happens to monitor this thread and takes offense at my repeated mention of them, when someone calls your phone, there is a message that all calls are recorded for quality purposes (or whatever). Thank you for that. That gave me permission to record as well, which I did, so that there would be no future misunderstanding of who said what and when.
We used to love the CR-V and were seriously thinking about doing a trade-in for a newer model, but suddenly this car that seemed perfect when we bought it is starting to look like a delayed-reaction lemon. There seems to be a lot of evidence that even if we pay the $1130 to get it 'fixed', it's going to turn out that the compressor internals disintegrated, requiring a lot of other peripheral repairs in the near future.
If something breaks after the warranty, please do not go back to the dealer. Go to a local mechanic that you trust. If you don't have one, then ask friends. My $1130 job will cost somewhere around $500. Maybe less. The job will be done with after-market parts that will outlast the original Honda parts. The workmanship will be better and if they make a mistake, they will fix it without charging a ton of money, because they want me to keep coming back.
The thing about local mechanics is that if they don't treat their customers well it bites then in the butt real quick. A lot of their customers know each other or know someone who knows someone who were really happy or really unhappy about the work. When you buy a car at a big dealership, you may know one person out of 5,000 who can tell you anything about the service.
I am reposting something I posted a few weeks ago, regarding an extended warranty. I was able to use this to get the AC clutch assembly and compressor replaced for free in Pennsylvania.
My 2007 CRV was out of warranty as well. I also found out last summer that I missed the class action lawsuit deadline. Honestly I had given up and then received the warranty extension letter in Nov2012. No idea why I received the letter in the first place??
Let me give you some basics from the letter I received. It specifies Honda Reference Svc Bulletin #12-072 at the bottom of the letter. Also to direct any questions to Honda Customer Service 800.999.1009, and select option 4. I would recommend calling before going to the dealer.
This letter is to notify you of a warranty extension on your CR-V. What is the reason for this notice? The A/C clutch wears out causing one or more of the following symptions:
The A/C performance is poor and it's blowing air that isn't very cold.
The A/C doesn't work and blows warm air.
The A/C makes noise that seems to come from the compressor area.
To increase confidence in your vehicle, American Honda is extending the warranty of the A/C clutch to 7 years from the original date of purchase or 100,000 miles, whichever comes first. (I had 96,000 miles on my car when I got the letter!)
This warranty extension provides coverage for the original owner and any subsequent owners.
What should you do?
If your vehicle is experiencing any of the listed symptoms, call any authorized Honda dealer and make an appointment to have your vehicle inspected. If the symptom is caused by a worn A/C clutch, the A/C clutch and, if needed, the field coil will be replaced at no cost.
Lastly, it says "we apologize for any inconvenience this warranty extension may cause you"
I would go back into the dealership with this info (after first calling American Honda) and force them to address the issue. If you have already had this fixed elsewhere, possibly you can get them to reimburse you for the costs?
Hope this helps!
Frank
How to Effectively Complain about your Car Problem
Found a new compressor on line through ebay ($157 free shipping from Texas). Could have done the work myself but didn't have the right vacuum pump and freon gauges. Paid mechanic $300 to install it.
Dealer wanted $950 to do the same job.
Only mistake the mechanic made was not to replace the belt while he was in there. Guess I'l;l do that in a few months as it is the original and we are at 95K miles.
Any thoughts on CR-V vs. RAV4 (reliability, safety ...).
Thanks
Thanks.
Last month took it back to the independent garage, They replaced the serp belt 'cuz it was @ 90 K miles and needed it. They warned me it could be the AC. The wuppa - wuppa started the next day so I took it to the dealer where I bought it.
They identified it as a bad clutch and oil leaking from the compressor.... ~ $1150 total . Clutch was covered under TSB, leaving me with ~ $863 to pay.
I asked them nicely what they could do to help out with the cost. Fortunately the regional service rep was coming the next day. My service rep explained we are a 5 Honda family yadda ,yadda.
Bottom line they charged me $100 bucks total. So far so good no noise and I got a 12 month 12K miles on the parts repair. Happy camper here.
they could not find the problem on my2008 cr-v with 99250 miles so i tinkered and found if i revved the engine to 1500 rpm and then turned the a c on sparks would fly from the clutch after i showed the service manager this they put in a new coil, clutch and compressor for fifty dollars [they called it a deductible]
good luck andy
Just a word to the wise here...
The A/C compressor on our 2003 CRV that has 78,000 miles started making some funny sounds and blowing hot air off and on. I had it looked at and it was confirmed the compressor was failing. From that point forward I have NOT turned on my A/C! A new compressor is on it's way to me.
If the A/C compressor TOTALLY fails, it CAN throw metal throughout the entire system and you will have to replace every component at great expense.
So, if you hear the signs of impending doom, shut it down until you can get the compressor replaced!
Naturally it picked the hottest week of the year to do this!
My 2008 CR-V started blowing warm air, intermittently, this summer. I remembered getting a letter from Honda USA so I pulled it out of the file and found the warranty extension. Since my extended warranty was close to lapsing, I scheduled an inspection at my local Honda Dealer, Borman Honda in Las Cruces, NM. No problems with them, inspection revealed signs of failure on the clutch and coil. Parts replaced promptly, My system had lost about 3 oz of refrigerant so I paid $120 for a recharge. I have 92000 miles and have owned the car since Dec 2007.
After buying a new compressor and having it installed, I learned it was NOT bad. It was the expansion valve that was bad which caused the compressor to cycle on and off quickly.
The guy who did the work said the old compressor was just fine!
Oh well...
It is imperative that if you hear any kind of compressor grinding, that you stop driving the car. Replacing the AC clutch is not too expensive, but if the compressor seizes, it will spread debris through the AC system, and you'll have a very large bill on your hands.
Sorry to hear about it. I loved my '98 EX AWD with stick-shift! Unfortunately, it met with a premature death.
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In the A3 there were no noises, warnings, sensors, or smoke. It just decided to cool less and less over about an hour until there was just no more cooling or conditioning going on during a hot day and long drive. Turning the AC on or off didn't seem to make any difference that was noticeable. I was told the compressor did seize, that debris did spread throughout the system when it self destructed, and that it was going to be very expensive to fix. Fortunately I was close enough to warranty at 53,000 miles that Audi stepped up to do the job at zero expense to me. I also got to drive around an A4 2.0T loaner for 2 weeks while they gathered parts, and worked on it.
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This weekend I drove on a long distance trip (6 hours each way). While on the highway doing 65-70 (on the way up) I heard a loud ping sound. About 15 minutes later I realized the A/C was blowing warm air. My previous car was a Prius which made the trip dozens of times without a problem. That car had 170k but was totaled in a rear end collision 4 months ago. Never had a problem with the A/C or any other component on that car. I have an appointment tomorrow with the Honda dealer to get the car fixed so I'll find out exactly what happened. I think this is totally unacceptable on a vehicle this new. Never again will I buy a Honda. Especially after reading all the problems other people are having.
latest issue was the compressor dying.
Car had only 59 K miles
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1) 2nd generation CRV's have much higher than normal AC compressor failure rates for modern cars. I'm talking 35-45,000 miles or less is super common for 1st AC failure!!! Apologists are gonna make excuses, but at the end of the day, my 17 year old Accord still has the original AC compressor, nearly 300K miles, and is still blowing ice cold air. I've never so much as serviced the AC in the vehicle.
2) Despite all your talk about people not changing out every part of the refrigerant circuit as the reason for the failures, they still fail even if all possible lines, condenser, dryer, etc. are replaced. I know, I've experienced this issue three different times before I finally sold my CRV in frustration. Black death is real, and nearly complete replacement of AC system is necessary to properly ensure no contaminants still exist inside.
3) Honda of America eventually came around and started doing good will repairs in certain situations, but clearly not for every situation. I should know, they initially denied any help, then finally made a ridiculous offer to me to split the parts and labor (@ 43K on odometer), though they still continued to deny that there was a problem. Their "split" appeared to be against an artificial priceline, as with the split I was offered, I was still looking at $2300-2800.00 for my "half".
4) It was only after I became friends with a Honda mechanic at the local Honda dealer that I found out the real straight scoop on this issue, which is is that Honda has known about this issue, continued to try to bury it for years, before a looming class action lawsuit forced them to finally start covering some level of repairs. My new friend told me they literally couldn't keep enough CRV AC compressors in stock at this dealership because of this issue, and they had multiple full-replacement repairs scheduled every single week he worked there.
5) Honda mechanic friend acknowledged that Honda has known for some time that the reason these units suffer premature failure is because of the compressor orientation in 2nd gen CRVs, which makes it hydro-lock when first starting up. AC compressors aren't designed to function as hydraulic pumps, so premature failures in 2nd gen CRVs occur regardless of whether compressor is OEM, or aftermarket. OEM unit does in some cases tend to last a little longer.
6) Honda came up with a "fix" for this issue, which involved reflashing the ECU. After the ECU was reflashed, the compressor would "pulse" for a few seconds on start up, which effectively pushes the oil safely out of the of the unit, without the compressor being forced to function as a hydraulic pump. If you go to Honda and ask to have the ECU reflash, and you cite because of AC issues, Honda will deny that any such ECU fix exists for AC issues. If you have another issue for which the ECU flash is a fix, they will do the reflash. This is once again right in line with how Honda has tried to suppress, confuse, and obfuscate this issue to mitigate their liability with consumers.
7) I'm still amazed to this day that it is almost impossible to find good, accurate information about this issue without all of the apologists diluting the discussions around this with their gaslighting. Honda has done an amazing job for years suppressing information on this particular issue, which in the age of the Internet, is no small feat.
8) After owning two brand new Hondas and being treated like a leper by both my local dealer, and American Honda, when I had premature AC compressor failure issues, I'm happy to report that I'll never own another Honda again. My next new vehicle purchase was a Toyota, which still has it's AC ice cold at 100K, and six years in.
9) I'm sorry, but Honda finally accepting some level of responsibility for replacing these units doesn't make them amazing, it makes them barely tolerable. My belief and faith in Honda is why I used to buy their vehicles; I'll never make this mistake again. They had to get caught with their pants down, and their finger in the cookie jar before they started paying anything to anyone for replacements outside of warranty.