1996 Integra GSR Sedan

While the car is PA legal to drive now, now i can add air conditioning woes to my list of stuff....

 

Who knows air conditioning? I'm kind of at a loss here...

I rented a set of gauges from AutoZone to test the pressures in the system. Here were the temps, but it was definitely at least 80 in my garage.



I started out by running the car for about 10 minutes with the windows up and the AC on full blast. This was the lowest the temp would go.



So next with the car still running and the AC on, I started feeling the AC lines. The ones that are circled blue were freezing, the ones that are circled red were warm but not hot. This is probably at around 15 minutes of the car running now. So, it looks like the low pressure lines were all freezing and the high pressure lines were warm. I obviously couldn't get to the ones going to the evaporator.




So next I hooked up the gauges.



Here they are with the car running:


And after I shut the car off and left the gauges connected.


I know enough about AC stuff to be dangerous, but I'm trying to learn more. I'm at a loss, it seems like the pressures are right for the given outside temperatures, and the air is cooler than it is outside the car, but it definitely is not as cold as it is supposed to be. If anyone has any other ideas of where I should keep looking, please let me know.

Obligatory pretty car picture lol

 

I don't know enough to troubleshoot by pressures. I actually have my epa card and once in awhile service the systems on our A/H-64 Apaches.
I start by recovering the refrigerant, replace oil, draw a vacuum, then service with the correct lbs of refrigerant.

Expansion valves and receiver driers are pretty cheap and couldn't hurt changing out as well.

 

Yeah thats the process they used with the oil and refrigerant. I suppose its possible i may have got a bad evaporator or expansion valve or drier out of the box. I just hate to buy all of those parts again and do all of that work again, and pay to get the system drained and then filled back up again.

 

ive never had to deal with a/c yet

although when its 110 outsidei have regrats

 

Yeah, I only planned on using it when it was raining or when my son was in the car. He's not a huge fan of 90+ with humidity. Although, neither am i lol

 

I just came across this, i'm gonna give this a peek tonight i think.

https://www.team-integra.net/forum/19-projects-diy-article-talk/204686-c-not-cold-try.html

 

I'll have to check that out too.

 

haha the guy that posted it back then is my buddy

 

No kiddin? Didn’t he recently put his car up for sale? Or maybe I am thinking of someone else.

But, that link worked. Ac is getting temps in the vents down to roughly 48 degrees now. Maybe that’s a bit higher than some cars, but from what I’ve read these cars don’t have the greatest ac systems. Either way, just by following that link I dropped another 12 degrees in vent temps.

 

he had posted it for sale but still has it now. jsrc supercharged ls. i met him like 11 years ago in a KC T-I meet

 

I bet that thing is a torque monster....or at least as much of a torque monster a 1.8 liter can be lol

 

i should have bought it from him when he was trying to sell it.

 

Your thread made it to the second page, so I'll bump it with the news that I got my project running. I drove it to work 20 miles each way this week, sounds mean.

 

Nice build! I wish I held onto my old 97 GSR now that I have more time and money. Thanks for sharing, you gave me a lot of nostalgia.

 

looks great! I was so torn on going jdm front vs finding a clean 94-97 usdm front. I'm still second guessing myself lol.

My taco is getting jealous, i drive it once a week to make sure fluids stay circulated. The rest of the time i'm driving the teg. Still dealing with some issues with my teg, a friend gave me a loaner ECU to determine if it was my ECU that was keeping my car stuck in open loop. Turns out it is not, so time to start checking voltage at wires again...

 

Check the coolant temp sensor. If the ecu thinks it’s still cold it’ll never go closed loop. Won’t throw a code either since it’ll believe the temp.

 

oh yeah, replaced that, replaced the primary 02 sensor because it was throwing a high voltage code for it, and it i checked the map and tps sensor too. i think it is in the wiring, with the new sensor and a loaner ecu, its still throwing a high voltage code.

 

Hmm, shitty.

And about the JDM front, I love it, but it's a complete pain in the ass. The only way I'd do it again is if I had a nose cut. These importers don't include the fender brackets, hardware, clips. With these old cars all the clips break anyway, however it's tough to find replacements. I can't read Japanese and a lot of their parts websites don't even have pictures.
The hood release is on the right hand side so the factory cable doesn't reach. New 90-93 DA cables are discontinued. I have a temp solution until I find a new DA cable.
Then there's wiring of the lights, adding a switch/fuse/relay for the fogs, tracking down a JDM washer tank to clear the HID lights....

Pain in the ass.

 

Still fighting with electrical issues, but not bad enough i cant drive the car everyday. I like this picture i took of the car this morning. Taco was parked out front so i moved the car from the garage to the parking pad so it would be easier to get the boy into the car.



And from the other night. Just a boy and his Acura lol