Air conditioning (AC) woes

Honda Civic 4-dr sedan LX 2003 Air-conditioning

About a year after i bought the car the air-conditioning no longer
worked. Was under warranty so the dealer looked at it and said that
they couldnt determine the cause and replaced the O-ring. Now 3 months
out of warranty the air-con is dead and the dealer claims the problem
is a leaking service valve on the high pressure line. and since this
isnt related to the O-ring i have to pay for the service. My appeals
to the contrary are unheeded. before i fix this and find out in 2
years they never really fixed the problem i'm hoping someone has had a
similar issue and can advise if the service valve can fail?

an independent garage i spoke to called another honda dealer who said
they dont sell valves for this model. just the full pressure line
(which presumably contains the valve)

Any advice on this issue appreciated.

TIA
Darryl d'Sa

 

Did you raise the issue with the Honda Regional Office? (Look in your
manual) Dealer's manager probably won't care if they still want more
money from you.

 

It is common for air conditioning repair personnel to find one leak, repair
it, and send the vehicle out the door. It takes a little longer, but good
practice is to pump the system down and verify that it can hold a vacuum,
say overnight. Then you know that the vehicle doesn't have any detectable
leaks. I don't know that your dealer is responsible for the second failure,
but it sure fits a general pattern I have observed.

The service valve can fail, but it is not common for it to fail in use. It
would more likely have failed when the dealer connected his test equipment
to it. Causes could be dirt introduced during service, or the valve
mechanism jammed. Before replacing it, they should have disconnected and
reconnected their gauge coupler a couple of times, to try and reseat the
valve. Another thing you can do, even if the valve is leaking, is to screw
the dust cap on real tight. It has an O-ring in it, that is supposed to
stop refrigerant from leaking out, even if the valve is defective.

These vehicles have maybe eight O-rings in all. A good mechanic would
verify that he cannot detect a leak at any of the fittings in the AC system,
not just go for the most obvious one.

Earle