2006 Honda Accord AC Lysol Shenanigans

So the wife has been bothered of late because her superhuman sense of smell has not been happy about the smell blowing out of her 2006 Honda Accord 's vents when she turns on the air conditioning. In true DIY spirit she googled to see if there was a solution.

Google recommended turning off the air conditioning compressor and running the internal fan full blast with the engine on. then emptying about half a can of lysol disinfectant spray into the vents near the wiper blades on the outside of the car. Thinking that it sounded like something that she was capable of doing, she bought a can of Lysol and went to work. 

It did not end well. 

After spraying the Lysol into the vents for a few seconds the car (according to her) made a loud noise and then the engine started to sputter She hurriedly jumped back in and pressed on the gas pedal to keep the engine from dying and was able to keep it running. After shutting the car off she called me and told me what she had done and I promised to come home and look things over using my highly impressive mediocre knowledge of modern vehicle maintenance. Nothing looked obviously awry to me. I suggested, with great confidence, that she "watch it" to see if anything else developed. (sound advice on my part if I do say so myself) 

the next day the A/C stopped blowing cold. We live in a giant desert. running a car sans A/C has been known to result in melting humans. 

My secondary attempt to diagnose the problem began in earnest- (I know my initial observations were impressive enough, but this time I decided to really apply some time-honored critical thinking skills to the problem.) 

I decided that one of several possible things had happened. 

1. Theory A: Lysol might be sticky. If it is, it may have somehow traveled through the vents into "something vital" and gummed it up. My genuinely unqualified mind envisioned secondary inline fans within the vents, sensors, wiring, and cooling chambers including any number of valves, fins, and electrical components that may be affected by the properties of the Lysol formula. (If at this point it seems that I do not know the first thing about how a vehicle A/C system works, I choose to neither confirm or deny any knowledge or expertise either express or implied that I may or may not possess. Now be quiet, I am thinking critically.) 
2. Theory B: Perhaps Rebecca did not actually succeed in turning off the A/C and ran the compressor during the fateful spraying of the Lysol. This would be contrary to the recommendation of the Google though I'm not sure why. If so, Lysol may have traveled into places where Lysol was not intended. Wait - Is the compressor part of the loop there? Maybe Lysol got into the compressor! Yikes!  (Okay. I don't really believe from what I know about home AC units and refrigerator units that the compressor is part of the loop, but I had the thought so I wrote it down.)
3. At this point I determined that it might be prudent to locate the a/c compressor. Mrs. Hotbody was watching, so rather than risk looking stupid in front of my wife (a look that I was clearly not wearing already amiright guys?) I began pointing at things that looked vaguely cylindrical under the hood calling them "the compressor" I figured that eventually one of them would be correct. I later found that I was mistaken on all counts, but, and I cannot express enough the importance of the next statement - I was wrong with great outward confidence. IMHO feigned confidence is at least half the battle in amateur vehicle repair work. 

Reaching the bottom of my lilliputian barrel of automotive expertise, I decided that it was time to do a little research. I know! a risky move at this point, but I am glad to report that it ultimately resulted in me learning a little. As it turns out, the compressor is connected to the serpentine belt via a clutch mechanism! Who would have guessed it? Upon  the  recommendation of a dubiously reputable person who made a YouTube video about it, I located the compressor clutch and confirmed with Mrs. Hotbody's assistance that it did not begin to spin when the A/C was switched on. (It did, however remain stationary when the A/C was switched back off... if that helps.) 

At this point I was hot on the trail of a new theory. the aforementioned dubious YouTuber had suggested that the relay that drives the compressor may have blown out. His solution was to unplug everything in the fuse box and plug them all elsewhere. Having some rudimentary knowledge about fuses, polarity, and voltage limitations I declined to take this advice. (Besides, he was performing his repair on a 2003 accord which clearly makes him an untrustworthy charlatan in the book of any respectable 2006 Accord owner.) His ramblings did force me to consider that the Lysol may not have been the catalyst for disaster after all! Maybe things failed after turning the system on full blast for a sustained burn. The strain may simply have burned out an aging relay. Could it be that simple?

I determined that I would spend $14 to purchase a new relay and just slap it in there to see what would happen. With luck, the stars would align, the car would begrudgingly submit to my will and my wife would once again be able to enjoy cold air on her face whilst transporting children from one place to another. Boom! Happy wife, happy life! 

Well after noodling it for a bit I decided to see if the relay shared the same model number as any other relay in the box. It did! Maybe that youtuber was less dubious than I initially realized! I switched the relays around and Ta Da! Nothing happened. Mmpf :| There goes that theory. 

Long story short - nothing I tried, short of replacing the compressor completely, seemed to have any effect whatsoever on the system. The compressor clutch just crouched there peevishly as if to say Eff you Huckleberry. I'm done doing your bidding! I was forced, after some halfhearted wheel-spinning, to throw in the towel and seek professional help. Compressor replacement is not something that I include in my current list of automotive skills. Anything attached to the serpentine belt could be considered a bad idea for me to mess with actually.

Roughly 2 days and $800 later, it was determined that my wife's compressor had passed on to a better place. It makes sense really. If the compressor clutch seized up it would explain the noise and the subsequent sputtering of the engine. If the clutch stopped spinning and put a strain on the belt, it could have made an idling engine sputter as the belt took on the strain of the un-moving part. I'm sorry to say that, no thanks to my efforts, my wife's car has a new compressor and I remain distinctly unimpressive. No surprise there.

Moral of the story - If you spray Lysol into your HVAC intake vent, you had better be sure that your home repair resources are better equipped than me or it might cost you $800.