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Sedans Honda Accord Older Honda Accords
20241 messages, Last post on Dec 01, 2009 at 9:18 PM
You are in the Honda Accord Forum. Your Hosts are pat & karens
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I have never heard of such a "smart" AC compressor. In every car I have driven, I have had to turn the AC off manually in order to give me that extra oomph for hard acceleration from a standstill. This includes my Mom's 92 Accord, sister's 94 Accord and 2000 Odyssey, brother's 95 Intregra, and my own 2000 Hyundai Accent. The AC clutch is turned on and off based solely on the temperature of the freon. When you accelerate hard, it turns the compressor at a faster pace, thus pumping the freon faster through the system and cooling it faster as a result. The sudden coolness will trip the AC temp switch located in one of the AC lines and thus switch the compressor off. It is pure coincidence that you noticed what you did. All you did was cool the freon to the threshold of the switch by accelerating the engine, thus shutting off the compressor. I will give you an example. My Hyundai only has 92 hp and accelerates slowly with the AC engaged. I have tried to pull out fast from a dead stop and the car just bogs down and accelerates like it has an anchor attached to it. As soon as I shut off the AC switch, it's like a turbo kicks in and the engine revs with much less restriction. If what you are saying is true, I should not experience this bogging because the AC compressor should know I'm asking for more power and shut itself off. Like I said, there is no way for it to know you are asking for more power, because it does not have a computer chip talking with the rest of the car's engine control unit. It is controlled solely by a temperature switch. Hope this helps the confusion surrounding this topic. |
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| Does anyone know if you can get more than once choice for optional alloy rims on the '01 Accord LX V-6's? I wasn't sure if the wheels are 15 or 16 inches for the LX's. According to Hondaaccessory's link, you can only get one choice for optional rims, and it's 16". I thought only the EX's had 16's. Any info people? | |
| Well if you guys arent going to believe me then oh well there is nothing I can do, but I can tell you that it does shut off.I dont know when they started it but I will check.It may have been 92 or 94, so yes the accord(atleast one of them does) and definitly the Odyysey.The ECU has a A/C input and output going to it and controls the A/C compressor through the A/C thermostat in the evaporator.Before they made the change the thermostat used to be a 2 wire and is now a 3 wire due to the change.I am very aware of the high pressure switch in the high side line and I do know what it does as well as the rise in pressure due to accel.However this compressor shut down happens from 0-20mph on fast accel to quick for the pressures to go high enough for the pressure switch.I have tested what I am talking about and have seen it work, but if you dont believe it no big deal after all what do I know after 17 years of working on Hondas | |
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| Than how do you explain the example of my 2000 Hyundai Accent? Is this a Honda only thing? How does it determine how much acceleration you are asking for and thus decide whether to turn it off or not, or are you saying it occurs everytime you accelerate between 0-20 mph? I am real curious as to how this works, so I will ask my brother-in-law, who is a mechanic on all sorts of cars, whether this is true of all cars or just Honda's. | |
| I have only worked on Honda and Subaru in the past 17 years so I don't know about Hyundai systems except for the basics.Have been exclusive Honda tech for the last 12 years so I loose touch with other brands of cars. For an exact 100% true statement I would have to check a manual but as for what I remember, the throttle position sensor has to show rapid accel wanted and the speed sensor signal has to be under 20mph.If these are satisfied then the ECU(computer)will shut the power to the compressor clutch.It does not shut of the light on the dash only the clutch power.It does this in much the same way as the high presure switch or the thermostat. It will not shut down the compressor on moderate or normal accel. As far as the other cars go your brother in law would be the man to ask. See ya | |
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Auburn, thanks for the details, and I for one never said I didn't believe you. What I did say, and will say again, is that I interpreted the original question to mean, "does the AC shut down when rapid acceleration is called for at highway speeds", to free up a couple of hp for faster accel.? I said in my original response that this feature is one I have only heard about on police package cars [to help in pursuit situations], and you have confirmed that Honda's switch only works at low speeds. And what this has to do with the way Hyundai does things, I have no idea, either... Anyway, thanks again for taking the time to explain the details. |
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| Both the LX and EX, both 4 and 6 cyl cars, have 15" wheels as original equipment. Most Honda dealers feature alloy wheels for these cars in both 15" and 16" sizes....I've certainly seen both in brochures and in the parts dept at my local, as well as available online from the big dealers who maintain web sites. If you go with 16s, though, remember to get the right size tires or prepare for some odo error. For example, the 6cyl cars' OEM size is 205/65x15 - which means you have to go with 205/60 or 205/55 if you use a 16" wheel. Same sort of calculation for the 195/65x15 used on the 4 cyl cars.... | |
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I haven't had time to check any further on the highway speed kick down. I know the mid 90's Civics did but they really needed it to.Anyhow if I find out more info I will pass it on. Jrct9454 the only exception to the wheels is on the Coupe V6 which comes with a 16 inch wheel and uses a P205/60 R16 91V. Always glad to try and help answer questions.Have a good day....see ya |
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| Thanks to jrct9454 (post #60)answering my questions about changes for '01. A couple of the changes interest me, especially the front/rear appearance mods (although they don't seem very significant in the picture) and the "20 engineering enhancements...contributing to better ride and wind noise..." Oh well, my salesman told me very emphatically that Honda was on a 5-year cycle and assured me there were no changes for next month, I mean, year. My car is so new (2 weeks), I've not received that "oh-so-important" survey...any opinions on how I might handle this? | |
| Thanks for the response. I remember asking the dealer about optional rims and he said only the 16" were available and in only one style. After we looked in the accessory book did he realize he was wrong. I went to the link hondaaccessory posted and it had what looked like the same rims but said only for the L4's and not V-6's. That confused me a bit. I would be happy with 15" tires. At the vtec.net site it said there were new rims for both LX and EX models. Hopefully they will look as sharp as the current choices. | |
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