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.

 

wrote in

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.