Hello everyone,

I am new here since I started to fix issues with my girlfriends 2011 CRV. Her CRV with just around 100k miles started to have an issue with the climate system. The AC started to work whenever it wanted to, so logically compressor right? Except that whole system seems to do whatever it wants. Turn it to heat, and heat comes on. Okay, but shut the whole system off and the top vents will start blowing. Turn it back on, it's set for front facing AC, but hot air is coming out of the defrost vents or blowing on our feet. It's not taking the commands I'm giving it. At this point I believe it's more electrical with the system, maybe the control panel?, but I have no idea where to start. Any help would be REALLY appreciated since we're in the south and hitting 100 outside everyday. The shops around here tell me to replace the compressor first, then look for other issues, but that's a little backwards to me since the other issues could be causing the AC not to turn on. I'm looking to waste as little money as I can when fixing this issue.

Thank you!

 

Start by doing a system reset and see what happens. Only takes a few minutes but it does sound like the controller may be bad.
Turn the system on full cold Max AC.
Radio OFF.
Turn ignition OFF.
Pull the HVAC (AC) fuse(s) from interior fuse box. Leave out for 1 minute and replace.
Turn key to run/on position....NOT start.
Do not touch any controls. You'll hear the doors (actuators) being opened and closed. The HVAC module is learning the full open and full close positions. Wait until the system is completely done with the learning process. Less than a minute.
Start and test the system.

 

I do not see anything HVAC related on the interior fuse box. I tried the steps above after pulling the AV relay under the hood, but it didn't reset the system. Am I not finding the correct fuse location?

 

It may be in the under hood box.

 

The problem of having the flow of air thru the wrong vents may be caused by the blend door or blend door actuator. Commands to the actuator may be sent but the actuator may not be responding properly. Does the AC blow cold when turned on? If it does then could be okay. Also, you did not say if the AC is auto climate or manual climate control? Would suggest downloading the service manual for your vehicle.

https://www.workshopservicemanual.co...2007-2011.html

 

Blend door has nothing to with the direction of air flow. We did this before. The blend door only switches from hot to cold. The mode door is the door that changes the direction of air flow and not temperature. Mode = vents/floor/defrost while blend is temperature.

 

The AC does not blow cold when set to. Once in a while it does, but at random.

 

So considering all these problems happened at once, would you assume it's an electrical problem and not the blend or mode doors failing? Only thing that makes sense to me is the main control panel.

 

That is the controller. They can fail in many ways and do very weird things.
A good scan tool can look at the controller and see how it responds to the various controls when changed.

 

Okay, I was just able to spend a little time messing around with the car. I checked all AC related relays and fuses, all are fine. I checked the wiring harness of the controller panel and that seemed okay. I watched the blend door change positions when I changed the temperature to hot, and it blew out heated air. When I turn the AC function on and off the car is pulling a little more power when it's turned on. The system did also switch from defrost to front blowing after about 3 or 4 minutes after I told it to do so. Would you check the thermal switch or controller panel first? From my understanding it should be one of those two causing the issue.