Topic: A/C: Fixing battered radiator on a Civic

[adnix]

Hey all,

My girlfriend's car (2001 Civic) has been having A/C troubles recently. Sometimes it works and other times it does nothing at all. The controls themselves are fine (A/C light goes on even when it's not working and you can hear a fan come on, so it's trying...). The coolant level has been checked and is ok.

After looking at the car with her dad (who deals with heat pumps etc for a living), he noticed that the radiator in the front of the car is all smashed up (from months of driving over gravel roads I'm guessing with the little rocks smashing into it and bending the thin metal blades). He's guessing that's the problem: The radiator can't cool efficiently so the car has a safety cutoff to prevent the A/C from doing its thing when it's too hot. Does that sound plausible?

Regardless, the radiator should be fixed up of course. Do they sell the required comb to fix these up at Canadian Tire or is the spacing model-specific? Fixing it without a special comb tool of some sort looks like it would take forever.

As a related question, the air filters need to be changed as well (again due to the dirty roads the car has been driven on the past while). Would this be something I could do without prior knowledge? Are there instructions on how to do so in the manual or on the net, etc?

Many thanks for the help.

[barrie1]

I have used a Dog Grooming brush with the metal prongs on it to straigten out the rad finns. Usually works fairly well. The Air Filters will be very easy for you to change out as just make sure you have purchased the right one for the car and have a old rag handy to wipe the inside of the breather box out of any loose dirt before you install it. Even a small shop vac will be helpful with this task. You can also power wash the rad from behind to the front of the rad to remove any excess dirt that there is in the rad as well. DO NOT rinse from the front into the rad as it will only make matters worse. It will pack the dirt in to the rad even tighter and cause it run hotter yet. The Dog Comb will do a good job but it does take a bit of time.

[articsteve]

The radiator can't cool efficiently so the car has a safety cutoff to prevent the A/C from doing its thing when it's too hot. Does that sound plausible?

NO.

The AC CONDENSOR rad is located in front of the radiator on a 2001 Civic I believe as it is with most AC cars.  That is what is dinged up.  I have a 2002 SIR in the fleet and I got the son to install a screen in front of it because we get lots of flying gravel in our driving area. An owner doesn't want to replace a condensor rad because of flying gravel $$$$.

You need to go to and see Mr. Honda for an appraisal.

[kmak]

Adnix, is he looking at the rad or the condenser for the a/c?  If the condenser is plugged with debris it will not do its job properly. Hth.