Advice please on the best way to use the air-con system on modern cars.
Honest John suggest use at all times? My friends are not convinced, claiming high fuel bills and loss of power. Any setting of the heating system to the screen on modern cars automatically turns the A/C on, so is the manufacturer and honest John correct or should A/C be used more sparingly (cold/weekly/or unless you need it)?
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IMHO A/C is a great thing to have and given that you have a car with it you'll want to keep it working properly - yes? If so, listen to HJ's advice. On the other hand if you don't care about it packing up make sure you leave it off all winter and then turn it on for the 3 weeks of summer we get in the UK :-)
Your friends are probably just jealous as they're fed up frying in summer and misted up in winter! ..and as for loss of performance - given that you don't plan to enter the British Touring Car Championship does it really make any difference...?
btw - just bought HJ's motoring yearbook - well worth the price and easier to carry around than a laptop for accessing all the info on this web site!
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Definitely keep it on all year round. Even with one person in the car, it'll steam up without the a/c on in the winter. If you park outside and not in a garage, you'll appreciate keeping the inside of the car dry on really cold mornings - no condensation or ice on the inside of the windows.
Will also keep it in full working order. Any extra fuel expense will be more than saved for innot having to have the a/c repaired when the seals go because of no lubrication.
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Thanks boys,
Made the same sort of conclusion, if its there use it, or like most things in the car industry, under use is worst than a good hammering!
Chris
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You might as well use it. Most of the extra fuel consumption comes from carrying the extra 30 kg of air con equipment, so you'll pay for that whether the air con is switched on or not.
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Chris,
This has been discussed a great deal here, try the search button on air conditioning, this will confirm the posts here.
I certainly leave mine on, the heater is also more efficient on my car in a/c mode, and you would only notice a loss of power in a smaller engined car apparently.
Stu.
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I agree with the benefits of aircon and would not do without it, summer or winter. However I have found varying effects in the four cars I've had with aircon. The first, a 2 litre 1992 Cavalier, noticeably dropped in performance when it was switched on. None of the other cars (inc a '99 Astra 1.6 8v with only 75hp) has suffered from this so its not just a matter of engine power. I suspect system design has been improved to reduce apparent loss of power.
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Chris
This has been dealt with many times before. However,my own experiences are probably worth repeating (at least I think they are!).
I ran some fuel consumption tests on my 1999 Xantia HDi, covering some 2500 miles (air con "off" and air con "on") and I reckon the difference was between 1% and 2%. This miniscule cost is far outweighed by the benefits of instant demisting and knowing that the thing is working consistently.
After all, just because it's winter I bet you don't take all the food out of your fridge and store it in the garage, and then turn the fridge off - or do you?
Ian
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For specialists, try www.instvac.co.uk.
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The advice I've been given was to use it for at least half an hour every week to keep the seals lubricated, and to run it on hot for at least ten minutes to dry the vents out and prevent bugs growing.
Andy
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I note that the cars I have rented in UK seem to possess rather weak aircon compared with where I come from. A gentle whiff rather than a good cold blast, and not really as effective as I would have liked. From memory that was Volvo, Ford, Mercedes. A Nissan in Spain was however fine. Possibly the a/c is specc'd for the area where sold? as I found on what passes for a hot day in UK none of the systems produced the cooling quality I am used to (Gulf and Far East, West and South USA, Australia) to really bring down the temp fast after the vehicle has been standing. Growlette pointed out in her inimitable way it reminded her in reverse of those feeble economy showers so beloved of UK small hotels (incidentally also un air-conned and hot and stuffy!), where the water comes out hot in an ineffectual trickle and immediately goes cold if you crank up the tap. You Poms just can't do air-con and showers, can yers, she says every time
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THe Growler wrote:
> Possibly
> the a/c is specc'd for the area where sold? as I found on
> what passes for a hot day in UK none of the systems produced
> the cooling quality I am used to
When I was first in Brazil there were two different Astras for sale; one bult in Belgium and the other in South America somewhere. It was a well known fact that the air-conditioning on the European one was much weaker.
Certainly comparing the one Vectra 2.2mpfi I sometimes drive here and a simialr one I rented in Geneva a year or so ago, the cooling on the one here is much, much stronger.
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Volvo's use the same system worldwide, except cold climates. BMW's the same, so is the Ford Mondeo.
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The apparent loss of performance when using air-con has been eliminated on some automatics by using the kick-down switch to turn off the air-con until part throttle is resumed, thus providing full power at full throttle.
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