Honda Car Forum

> If I had known about this in advance I would not have purchased the car. Do
> all new cars have compressor cut?


It's not necessarily a bad thing. I have a 2004 Toyota Tacoma, and as
far as I know the AC compressor doesn't turn off automatically.
Merging on a freeway is hell, and is only slightly better when I
manually turn the AC off.

Mike S wrote:

>> If I had known about this in advance I would not have purchased the car. Do
>> all new cars have compressor cut?
>
>
> It's not necessarily a bad thing. I have a 2004 Toyota Tacoma, and as
> far as I know the AC compressor doesn't turn off automatically.
> Merging on a freeway is hell, and is only slightly better when I
> manually turn the AC off.

My wife has a 2003 Toyota Rav and I think it has about the same size engine.
It does not cut off the AC.

A friend has the small Acura built on the Civic platform and has a similar
engine (but a manual trans.) and he says there is not this problem.

The air blows cold but not as cold as my wife's Rav.

I called the dealer and he said that if I bring it in they will charge me 50
dollars to do a test on it. Car is 4 months old with only 2k miles on it. I
guess the AC is not part of the warrenty.

Maybe I should have bought a Toyota.... or waited for a hot summer day to test
drive a car I was considering buying.

Al

On 7/15/04 3:39 PM, in article 10fdqrbgoir7oe3@news20.forteinc.com, "Al C."
<no.spam.acanton@adams-blake.no.spam.com> wrote:

> Mike S wrote:
>
>>> If I had known about this in advance I would not have purchased the car. Do
>>> all new cars have compressor cut?
>>
>>
>> It's not necessarily a bad thing. I have a 2004 Toyota Tacoma, and as
>> far as I know the AC compressor doesn't turn off automatically.
>> Merging on a freeway is hell, and is only slightly better when I
>> manually turn the AC off.
>
> My wife has a 2003 Toyota Rav and I think it has about the same size engine.
> It does not cut off the AC.
>
> A friend has the small Acura built on the Civic platform and has a similar
> engine (but a manual trans.) and he says there is not this problem.
>
> The air blows cold but not as cold as my wife's Rav.
>
> I called the dealer and he said that if I bring it in they will charge me 50
> dollars to do a test on it. Car is 4 months old with only 2k miles on it. I
> guess the AC is not part of the warrenty.

You need to find a different dealer.

>
> Maybe I should have bought a Toyota.... or waited for a hot summer day to test
> drive a car I was considering buying.
>
> Al
>

"E. Meyer" wrote:

> > I called the dealer and he said that if I bring it in they will charge me 50
> > dollars to do a test on it. Car is 4 months old with only 2k miles on it. I
> > guess the AC is not part of the warrenty.
>
> You need to find a different dealer.

Service writer: "This customer keeps complaining about his A/C, but
there is nothing wrong with it!"
Service manager: "Tell him we'll charge 50 buck just to look at it. Then
maybe he'll just go away."

Randolph wrote:

>
> "E. Meyer" wrote:
>
>> > I called the dealer and he said that if I bring it in they will charge me
>> > 50 dollars to do a test on it. Car is 4 months old with only 2k miles on
>> > it. I guess the AC is not part of the warrenty.
>>
>> You need to find a different dealer.
>
> Service writer: "This customer keeps complaining about his A/C, but
> there is nothing wrong with it!"
> Service manager: "Tell him we'll charge 50 buck just to look at it. Then
> maybe he'll just go away."


I think there IS something wrong with it. I've talked to a ton of folks and no
one can relate their car to this problem. I going to try to find some 2004
Civic owners in this area and see if I can get to the bottom of this. Anyone
out there with a new Civic EX in a hot climate?

Al

>
> I think there IS something wrong with it. I've talked to a ton of folks and no
> one can relate their car to this problem. I going to try to find some 2004
> Civic owners in this area and see if I can get to the bottom of this. Anyone
> out there with a new Civic EX in a hot climate?
>
> Al

Perhaps you could ask the dealer if you can test drive another 2004 EX
from their lot.

A friend of mine, who has at best minimal mechanical insight, found a
strong smell of burned oil in his car after a service. The dealer was
not very cooperative, but finally agreed to check it out with the
agreement that if they found nothing wrong, my friend would pay 1/2
labor charge. If they found that they had made a mistake, they would fix
it for free. Turned out they had simply forgotten to put on the oil
filler cap. You could try to make a similar deal with your service guys.
They may not be very motivated to find a problem if it means they have
to work for free, though.

I have finally found someone else who shares my dissapointment with their
2004 civic's air conditioning! Al, I live in Arizona, and let me tell you,
it is no picnic with this car's air conditioning when its 110 degrees out.
I have taken my car into the Honda shop 3 times now, and every time they
tell me that the air is "normal" and they have also informed me that this
model was built to blow warm air when accelerating while getting onto the
freeway. Aside from that, there are times when it takes 15-20 minutes for
my car to cool down. That doesnt help me out when I have a short drive to
the grocery store. Their solution to the problem? They tinted my windows
for free. While that is a nice gesture, and it does keep some of the heat
out, it doesn't help the actual air conditioner cooling off the car. I
have already called the Honda customer service center, to complain. That
is when they contacted my local dealership to have them tint my windows.
During a follow up phone call from the dealer, I went off on him telling
him I will never purchase another Honda again, nor will I keep this
vehicle to the end of the lease term which is 2.5 years away. I am
assuming he passed this message along to the customer service department
because they have not returned any of my phone calls. My next step is to
complain to the BBB about this. I refuse to pay $ for a car that I dont
even want to drive. The makers of this car should try driving it in the
middle of an Arizona summer, then maybe they will build a better air
conditioner...

I have finally found someone else who shares my dissapointment with their
2004 civic's air conditioning! Al, I live in Arizona, and let me tell you,
it is no picnic with this car's air conditioning when its 110 degrees out.
I have taken my car into the Honda shop 3 times now, and every time they
tell me that the air is "normal" and they have also informed me that this
model was built to blow warm air when accelerating while getting onto the
freeway. Aside from that, there are times when it takes 15-20 minutes for
my car to cool down. That doesnt help me out when I have a short drive to
the grocery store. Their solution to the problem? They tinted my windows
for free. While that is a nice gesture, and it does keep some of the heat
out, it doesn't help the actual air conditioner cooling off the car. I
have already called the Honda customer service center, to complain. That
is when they contacted my local dealership to have them tint my windows.
During a follow up phone call from the dealer, I went off on him telling
him I will never purchase another Honda again, nor will I keep this
vehicle to the end of the lease term which is 2.5 years away. I am
assuming he passed this message along to the customer service department
because they have not returned any of my phone calls. My next step is to
complain to the BBB about this. I refuse to pay $ for a car that I dont
even want to drive. The makers of this car should try driving it in the
middle of an Arizona summer, then maybe they will build a better air
conditioner...