A/c messed up?

My car, Honda Civic VP, 2005, less than 8K miles on it.

My situation is as follow: The thermorstat is always at the highest cool.

When I turned the switch to the symbols of "air to the face" or "air to the
face and legs", A/C light is off, then the air gets into my car is from
outside.

However, when I turned the switch to the symbols of "air to the windshield &
legs" or "air to the windshield", the cool air keeps blowing out, even the
light on the "A/C" is turned off.

As soon as the cool air blowing out like this, no matter where the switch
position is, cool air keeps blowing out, as long as the fan is still on.

Guys, please educate me on this issue. Thanks!

Should I consider this is the major problem that needs to be fixed at the
soonest time?

 

That's correct.

That's correct.

That behavior is by design.

Any air to the windshield is assumed to be defrosting air. To defrost
the windshield--to remove moisture from the windshield--requires DRY
air. Therefore, any air directed at the windshield will be dried out by
the air conditioner before going to the windshield.

This is by design.

As far as the a/c light not coming on: Honda has heard complaints over
the years from people who see that light come on automatically, even
though they didn't select it. They probably got tired of taking the
phone calls and so they decided just to leave the light off. However,
the behavior continues--because you directed that air go to the
windshield, presumably to remove moisture.

(That's what the A/C does, really--it doesn't cool so much as it removes
moisture from the air.)

This is ALL covered in your owner's manual. I'm going to take a wild
guess and say that you've never bothered to open it. Well, you should.
Go get it and open it to the climate control section, and it will tell
you all about this behavior.

 

Yes indeed that's what happens. Does it on the 03 Civic I drive. Did not
do it on the 5th gen Prelude I just sold -- you could turn the air off when
defrosting. But, you would just wind up turning it on again to clear the
windshield for the reason stated.

 

Thanks for your info.