[Kast]

Hello Insighters,

I have a few questions about the heat and A/C on my 2004 CVT Insight.

I've owned my Insight for about 2 1/2 years. For most of that time, I've had the A/C set to Auto and haven't touched it (i.e. the thermostat does everything).

Recently, I started manually selecting the A/C due to some unexpected heat waves. I noticed that when I have the A/C manually selected, the heat does not work (meaning, it only cools). Switching it back to auto and setting a higher temperature, however, does engage the heat.

Is this normal? I'd never noticed it in detail before.

My other A/C question is that, my heat and A/C do not work immediately after a cold startup. If I start up my Insight, I have to drive my car for about a minute or so. I typically leave my A/C on when I turn off the car, so when I get back in it in the mornings, it's already on.

For the first minute I drive after a cold startup, nothing runs. It takes a minute or so, and then I hear a trickling sound (like water or coolant) and then the A/C kicks in.

This has been consistent since I owned the car. Is this delay and trickling sound normal? It runs fine after it's started up.

Lastly, the rubber around the antenna has dry-rotted, and then antenna wire itself is rusted. I asked the Honda dealer where I usually get my Insight serviced if they could replace it. They said that the base of the antenna was rusted and that they couldn't guarantee that they could remote it without it breaking off in the base, which would require about $300 in labor to remove if it happened.

This seemed rather unprofessional to me for two reasons: 1) because the bottom of the antenna that goes into the antenna base appears to not be rusted and 2) because it seems to me that a dealer should be able to cover their own mistakes if this happened.

Is a rusted antenna/antenna base normal? Anywhere I can take it to get it serviced/replaced without having the fear of potentially paying several hundred dollars if it breaks off?

That's all I've got for now - appreciate it!

 

[AbCaRed00]

Trickling sound. Long shot with a chance guess here: Trickles are chaotic, and the sounds are happening before fan noise takes off, it occurred to me sounds could be debris in the fan. Easy to check and maybe remove a few bits of leaves?

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[The minute to heat thing .. I wish,... I so blocked off the front of the rad for the season just the other day...]
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HVAC sits there awhile..
I was puzzled on the a/c delay, and not familiar enough with a/c to really say but figured it had to do with ECT [coolant temp] as the hvac ecu assesses parameters. I am noticing this in freezing conditions on cold startup, where to use the drying a/c defrost to better clear the glass, when set on auto prior, the blower fan doesn't turn immediately at first start. After ignition, it's out the car quick to scrape windows, and meantime fan starts. fwiw: I have my heat knob on climate control set to max and recirc.
Maybe HVAC's supposed to delay initially as the coolant is very cold and below a threshold. Typically, if I want the air to blast out the vents right away I have to do the same as you and manually set.
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If a code can be found, there's a way to make your climate control readout the DTC, and also it can be set it into "display mode" at startup to read several parameters.
Details in are in obdii codes list, [in signature] , see row 144 right hand side
HVAC code
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1bLUyuFXWywH0PIzTXYtT6UprBNkOtjnWh5PFKjDFylA/pubhtml#
How to make cc display parameters is on on lower donw on row 157 right side.

Info on how the hvac works
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6EDknyr-8unUkNNckhtSFdERmc/view?usp=sharing
from hvac .pdfs at
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B6EDknyr-8unU1Fudk5OanF0LTQ?usp=sharing
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I don't have a any good clue on the antenna and haven't touched mine. Antenna seems an area lacking in the 'common topics' faq list.
The quick search found on IC on antenna removal:
http://www.insightcentral.net/forums/mpg-issues/12206-removing-antenna.html#post117722
gives not the details but quotes a part number for a replacement though: Element (P/N: 39151-S6A-E02). There are more options over the years with people diy r&r successfully.
Back to codes link, it has 'Audio system' listed but it's listed just as a schematic. There's a voluminous 'bodywork' section that may show, but it's as yet cryptically titled and huge to sift through; the index pgs are at rear.
The only service news note in a quick search about the stock radio antenna picked up the wiper static noise.
Best success to you and please let us know how it works out.