Review on AUTEX AC Compressor Clutch Coil Assembly Kit 80221SWAA02 38810RRBA01 4918U1 by Jason Pruett

It works great so far but takes a lot of timeI have 2009 Civic EX. Last time it was the relay switch but this time it was apparent it was the clutch. I read all the amazon reviews and watched youtube videos and researched the web. I bought this clutch because it was the #1 selling on amazon (who knows if it really is ). Then a reviewer just posted that the pully didn’t’ align and got me a little worried. The reviews for installation were discouraging. One person said it took him 7 hours, another said three hours, another said two days, and another said he would never do it again. I knew I needed to re-use my snap rings and by spacers from Honda, which I did. I purchased the Knipex 4611A2 snap ring pliers as suggested. It took me a total of 10 hours from start to finish to complete this job. It took me three hours just alone to get the first snap ring off! I was questioning whether I had the right snap ring pliers (I bought the Knipex 4611A2). There’s metal behind the first snap ring holes that prevents you from inserting the pliers all the way and these pliers barely fit the holes. I wonder if there are better snap ring pliers for the first snap ring. I almost gave up but the snap ring Gods showed mercy on me (I still can’t believe I spent that much time getting the first snap ring off). The rest was easier and the second snap ring took less than a minute to take off and putting them back on was just as easy. The interesting thing for my installation was that I had one spacer. I tried re-using it but my gap was around .030 with the feeler guage. I believe the specs say it should be .013-.026. I looked at the Honda oem spacers I bought and in there were two pairs of spacers with different thickness. I used the thinnest one and now my feeler guage was reading roughly .022 thickness, so I went with that. I put everything together (BTW when you bolt the compressor start with the two bolts on top just start them) because the compressor sits into these notches on each side). I put everything back together and figured this had a 50/50 chance of working. I made sure I put the new belt on correctly(figured I’d change it now since everything is off). I started up the car and everything ran great. The clutch was turning as it should but it wasn’t as cold as I wanted but then I realized it was 88 degrees outside and if you drive around the air gets cooler as it goes through the condenser PLUS if you read, the 8th generation civic AC is a little weak to begin with. I checked the Freon/ac pressure and it showed it at 40 which was good, but I still decided to top it off with Freon to 50 (which was on the high side of good). It works as should, but it’s only been a few hours. I hope this part lasts and if it doesn’t I will update this review, and I also won’t ever take on this task again. Next time, I would buy the OEM Denso compressor for $300 and pay a mechanic I know $200 plus parts. My end cost with parts (I didn’t have feeler guage, snap ring pliers, long 19mm wrench for serpentine, new belt, ) including new belt was around $140 plus 10 hours of my time.UPDATE: It's been about 20 months. It's still working good, but I still will never attempt it again.