[Formula413]

I had an issue with the air conditioner on my Civic when I went on my trip, trying to figure out what the deal is. Four days into my trip the AC became intermittent and then stopped working altogether (not fun when you're driving through the southwest). But I figured out that it would work when the engine was not under load, IE idling or coasting.

Stopped at a garage in Texas to have it looked at, the guy said the low side pressure was low but when he tried to add refrigerant it all went to the high side, and he thought the compressor might be going out.

Next day I had a Honda dealer in Albuquerque look at it, they said the system was actually overcharged (obviously from the last guy trying to add refrigerant) and they said that they thought the problem was that the AC was set to economy mode. Never mind that is has always been set to economy mode ever since I've owned the car and always worked fine. They evacuated and recharged the system and pronounced it good, which it was for about 15 minutes. So much for the dealer having all the answers.

Skip ahead a few weeks, I'm in the midwest in the middle of an oppressive heat wave. One day in Iowa I try turning on the AC just to see what happens, and sure enough it's working, load or no load, and has been working fine since.

The only variable I can see between when it worked and when it didn't is the elevation. Western Oklahoma and the Texas panhandle, which is where it started having problems, is also where the elevation starts to increase heading towards the continental divide. From there much of the trip was at elevations of 4,000ft-7,000ft or more, except along the west coast where it was cooler and I didn't try to use the AC. And eastern Nebraska and Iowa is where it dropped back down to about the 1,000ft range. Could elevation have anything to do with the AC not working? Or is it just a coincidence?