1st gen MDX Front AC fix

[sidewinder]

Well my front AC stopped blowing over the weekend and it turned out to be the thermal fuse on the transistor assembly. Great thanks to DidMoroz over on the rear AC thread for finding this.

It took me a trip to the dealer to find out the front transistor assembly which looks nothing like the rear assembly.

Anyways, I thought I'd post some pics since I don't see anyone's posted one.

The assembly is found below the glove box on the passenger side and is held by 3 screws. (There is no need to remove the glove box.) Make sure to unscrew three on the outside.




Once you remove the screws just unhook the wiring assembly and you get this:




Unscrew the three screws on the assembly then remove the plastic cover and get this: (the blue wire is the original bad thermal fuse) The red wire is what I used to temporarily jump the connection until the new fuse arrived.




Here's a better pic: (remove two screws on the plastic assembly to lift out the fuse)




Desolder the original thermal fuse:




New fuse installed: (as you can see I reused the old blue insulator)




I just used the leftover thermal grease that was already on the assembly and did not have to use new solder. Basically just heat the joint and pull out the old fuse then do the reverse with the new fuse.

Hope this helps and thanks again for everyone and this board for saving me some major bucks.

[phins2rt]

Thanks sidewinder! Good info!

[hopper]

I just ordered my fuse for the rear A/C yesterday and will handle that job when it arrives.

Hope I never need to replace the front, but is it the same fuse for the front and rear.

[Sinecure]

Is it the same fuse as for the rear? If not, can you post a part number or specs for ordering? Where did you get it?

[sidewinder]

Guys fuses are the same for front/rear. Here's the part from digikey.

P10920-ND

[cdrandolph71]

Great info, I had my A/C go out on I-10 with a full rain storm. In Louisiana, the windows fogged in about 10 seconds!!

Anyway, I pulled the aforementioned part and decided to test with a set of alligator clips on a jumper wire. The A/C fired right up!

I am sure this would have cost quite a bit to diagnose!!

[Warzau]

Another great write up for our community, I done stuck it.

[LarryH]

Fantastic--thanks for the great write up and pictures! I jumped it temporarily and am waiting for the replacement. I only wonder of while in use while jumping it, I need to be careful about using it?

[wmacorlando]

Guys,

The front A/C went out on my wife's 2003 MDX 8 days ago. I jumped the thermal fuse and it worked perfectly.

I replaced the thermal fuse and the A/C turned on full blast and the transistor assembly got hot. I turned the car off, unplugged it and tried with a second thermal fuse.

Back to no front A/C. Decided to replace the entire transistor assembly. Plugged it in and still no front A/C.

Checked fuses, but all seem to be in tact.

Any suggestions?

[RSM]

Originally posted by LarryH
Fantastic--thanks for the great write up and pictures! I jumped it temporarily and am waiting for the replacement. I only wonder of while in use while jumping it, I need to be careful about using it?

hmmmm... the fuse with the right ampere rating is there for a reason. Putting in a jumper is dangerous. If there is a significant increase in current, your load ( A/C) can get damaged.

[davidcito989]

Thanks sidewinder.

As I didn't trust myself to replace just the thermal fuse, I ordered the whole assembly and replaced it. If you're intersted it's part number 79330-S3V-A01. $67.86 from hondacuraworld.com

Also just a thanks in general to everyone on this board. You've probably saved me close to $1,500 already.

[Anothersmith]

Just wanted to say Thanks! This fixed my problem. I "hotwired" it for long enough to get to the dealer to pick up the whole module...repaired it my self in the back of the parking lot (90 degrees out)...then got a trade in value on it while I negotiated for the 2010 tech ent. Not sure what they would have charged me to fix this but on a 90 degree day I bet I saved my self a grand.

Thanks again!

[midnightMDX]

Awesome! Welcome to the forum! Chi-town!

[mushrush82]

This was an awesome post. I had to replace the rear thermal cutoff when we bought the 2003 Acura MDX 1.5 yrs ago. When I did that I went ahead and bought 5 of the thermal cutoffs. Sure glad I did, b/c I just used another one of them for the front AC transistor. Thanks so much to all the people who take them time to post detailed instructions on how to save a boat load of cash!

[tom34diy]

This is a great post. Without it, I'd be pretty worried about the A/C on our 03 MDX. It was working fine today, then stopped working. I am hoping it is this fuse. But, before I buy a replacement it would help to know if I can tell by looking inside the case that it needs to be replaced? Also, if our Acura dealer does not have one, does anyone know if one from the Honda dealer will work? Thanks for any help. Tom