Hi again! I have a 2006 Honda Accord V6 auto with 176k. So recently I just got a new ac compressor put on, before I got that replaced I made sure that they did the test that determines if it's the compressor or something else because the car wasn't blowing cold, in which case it was the compressor. AC's been good has been blowing ice cold. However, today I strangely noticed that once on a red light and other times parked, the ac wasn't blowing cold anymore. It would blow cold while driving but not while parked. Also, I noticed a whining noise from the car when driving when I have the ac on (now that I think about it it's been whining since I got it back from the mechanic that replaced the compressor). I can't tell if the compressor wasn't put on right on the belt or the alternator may be going bad (I'm thinking this cause of the whining noise because I had an experience with other cars that would whine like this and found it was the alternator). I went to 4 different AutoZones and all of them say that my alternator is good it passed all the tests, but my battery is bad. Strange enough to me because the battery shows normal voltages of about 12.7 while the car is off obviously and it has 100% charge yet it's still showing that's bad somehow. I'm lost and confused with all this, did I just make a bigger blunder for myself in my head or is there something else going on around here that I don't know. Thanks for your help in advance!
Check your condenser fan, typically when that goes bad you won't have good cooling when the car isn't moving. It may also be the sound you are hearing.
Okay, reporting back after checking the fans. Both of them are good and turn on and off as they should! I do hear a noise though when I kicked on the AC but it doesn't sound like it's coming from the fans. It sounds from where the alternator & AC compressor are but I can't figure out which it is since literally the AC compressor is right underneath the alternator. Doh.
Could be you have a leak somewhere and it's low on refrigerant. Mistakes are sometimes made - once I left an O-ring out which of course didn't go well! (Fortunately it was on my own car.) The noise could be any of the accessory drives or an idler pulley- with the compressor running there is a bigger load on the serpentine belt system. If there is any question about the battery it should be load tested and also checked with an electronic tester like Scotty uses.
I've never heard of a battery causing whining noises and/or preventing the ac compressor to blow cold air on idle (even though that part would at least make sense to me). The AC compressor has been replaced just a few days ago so low refrigerant wouldn't be the case I don't think nor any leaks from what I inspected. I guess the two things it could be are gonna either be the battery to be replaced or I'll have to see if maybe like you said that the belt needs to be checked out and maybe it wasn't put back on to proper spec for the ac compressor.. I don't know
You can't assume the recent work is leak free, as I said sometimes mistakes are made. I'd take it back to the guys who replaced the compressor and have them double-check it. I wouldn't think the battery would have that kind of effect but I know Scotty has said many times that the electrical systems on modern cars are very sensitive to even minor battery problems that would not have affected older vehicles..