Greetings fellow Clarity aficionados! My 2018 Clarity base (114K miles) diminished cooling capacity and leak stains on garage floor prompted me to take it in to local dealer to get condenser replaced under the extended warranty. When I picked it up from the dealer, there was a VERY loud ticking noise coming from under the hood when I turned on the A/C. I drove it back to the front of the dealership where the service area is and showed this to the service writer. He summoned the mechanic to look at it and the mechanic said it was like that when I brought it in earlier that day (not true). It only makes the loud noise when A/C is turned on. They determined it is a failed compressor and quoted nearly $4K to replace. Has anybody else had/have this issue? The service report states that there was 0.18KG recovered (Freon I assume) and charged system to MAX 0.445KG . There are no notes on the report indicating what type of Freon was used to recharge and no mention of replacing the A/C lubricating oil (which I understand is Clarity specific). I escalated the issue to the service manager and the owner of the dealership. We all had a brief meeting (also including the service writer and mechanic) before I left and the owner of the dealership agreed to have them take another look at it on a future date (it was closing time and all mechanics were going home for the day). A cursory internet search showed class action lawsuits for this same issue for the same model year Honda Civics. Apparently, when the Freon/lubricating oil runs low from the condenser leak, the compressor fails due to lack of lubrication. I believe the loud ticking noise from the compressor is metal to metal contact and causes metal flakes from the impeller to circulate thru the closed system further corruption/clogging other A/C components such as dryers, valves, lines and probably even the replaced condenser itself. From my internet search, the issue is that the newer R-1234YF Freon is a much higher pressure P.S.I. that causes the weaker components such as the condenser to rupture, thus causing the leaks. I have opened a ticket with American Honda in Torrance, CA and have a call into the owner of the dealership to bring it back in for further analysis. I told the service representative that I wanted their most experienced mechanic to check it and that I wanted to watch as they rechecked the system. I just wanted everyone to know what will likely happen when their Clarity's get up there in miles like mine (although it may be possible to fail at a lower or higher mileage/age). If anyone has thoughts or advise of how to proceed with the dealer/American Honda, I would be very grateful for your input. Thank you for reading through this post and enjoy your weekend! 007
I can't recall any failed compressors being reported here... There have been quite a number of condenser replacements that were successful. Fairly recently @begranter had a failed condenser, and after replacing it under warranty the dealer claimed that his evaporator was also bad. He was still in the midst of that, but had an extended warranty in any event. Here is his posting: https://www.insideevsforum.com/community/index.php?threads/clarity-a-c-problem-and-warranty-extension-on-pg-10.6302/page-13#post-176533 That same thread has numerous other stories about failed condensers too. It seems to me that your argument is that even if the compressor did fail, it is the direct result of the condensor failure (which they acknowledged as a warranty repair under this extension). Therefore it should be covered too. Regarding the clicking - Let's say the mechanic was not lying (and it was clicking for him when he first received it). Why in the world would he just go ahead and replace the condenser when he knew there was something else dramatically wrong? At best he is incompetent, and at worse he is lying (or both)!
