Air Conditioning Sucks Lots Of Power :(

[pixel8r]

The title probably says it all...

In short, I dont believe I have anything unusual with my air conditioning setup...(ie. no problems etc.)

Its just that with summer coming and with it a lot of hot weather I will therefore be doing a lot of driving with air conditioning on.

And with air conditioning on the stagea takes more revs to get it moving and generally feels very "weighed down" as a result. I think revs also build slower...

I'm sure we're all familiar with the effect of having air-con on. Just wondering if there is anything that can be improved on, obviously with the air-con still working

Cheers,

Steve.

[qikstagea]

Wind your windows down instead lol

[pixel8r]

Wind your windows down instead lol

haha yeah there's always that. If I'm on my own I will avoid a/c until its really unbearable (windows down, sunroof open) but the wife always insists on turning it on (dont blame her really).

Just wondering if everyone just puts up with having a significantly slower car in summer/hot weather or if there's some mod(s) that can be done to improve things...

[Nozila]

nope, slow enough as it is in the heat. ive stopped using my a/c for bout 2 yrs now. i make my missus deal with it. i just drive faster to get more airflow into the car with windows down. i think having a/c on in unbearable heat could make it worst for engine - overheat etc etc.

[qikstagea]

If your wife is in the car... you probably wouldnt be doing any crazy powerful manouvres anyway one would think?? I know my fiance gets up me whenver the damn auto kicks back a gear!

[Ska]

Meh I dont notice much of a difference on or off........? And I only really turn it on if it is hot and the kids are in the car, calms them down

[pixel8r]

If your wife is in the car... you probably wouldnt be doing any crazy powerful manouvres anyway one would think?? I know my fiance gets up me whenver the damn auto kicks back a gear!

hmmm yes all too familiar with this...

put it this way - I get away with it...sometimes. She gets annoyed if I take off quick etc. but she gets over it

Its all good

[Appealing]

The title probably says it all...

In short, I dont believe I have anything unusual with my air conditioning setup...(ie. no problems etc.)

Its just that with summer coming and with it a lot of hot weather I will therefore be doing a lot of driving with air conditioning on.

And with air conditioning on the stagea takes more revs to get it moving and generally feels very "weighed down" as a result. I think revs also build slower...

I'm sure we're all familiar with the effect of having air-con on. Just wondering if there is anything that can be improved on, obviously with the air-con still working

Cheers,

Steve.

Actually Steve there is.....

1. start the car earlier and switch the aircon to lowest fan setting but coolest temp. By the time that you drive off the interior may already have dropped a few degrees, (I am assuming that the car isn't too hot to start with.

2. Make sure the venting is set to interior only, or you are trying to cool the world down not just your car!

3. When you take off try to avoid setting the fan higher, as this will take the cold out of the condenser quicker and the air con will kick in more.

4. If the car is really hot, drive a while with the windows down to get rid of the hottest air.

5. PARK IN THE SHADE.

6. Move to Tasmania.

You probably know all the above, but some ppl don't.

[mcnamg]

having the windows down creates more drag stagea already has the aerodynamics of a brick no need to make it worse

ska doesnt notice as he has a manual he compensates for lack of power with delay in changing gears autos dont do this too well

[IMPORTD]

"It could be the compressor is starting to seize up or the belt is too tight.. " says Mitchy

I had my air con on all day today and didn't feel any power change to the car And we went up some pretty good hills too..

[GoldZilla]

I'm with Kylie on this, check that your a/c compressor pulley bearings aren't starting to seize up, and that the belt isn't too tight.

[CruiseLiner]

u can buy some sort of switch setup where it cuts the aircon off when u press more than a certain amount of throttle from what ive read, unsure if its only possible with aftermarket ecus or not. try searching jaycar website as they have heaps of this electronic gismo sort of stuff.

[mcnamg]

yeah i agree with kylie i definately had no problems hanging in there right on kylies ass all day up and down some big hills with lots of twisty corners

my aircon sat on 18 degrees all day fan was on full and no issues

[pixel8r]

yeah sometimes it seems ok and sometimes it doesn't. I think a lot of it is to do with how hot the air is outside (and inside - making it work harder). Hotter air is less dense so the car doesn't perform as well as if it was cool air.

Also I was reading other aircon related stuff on this forum and I got the impression that there is a 2nd fan (in front of the radiator, not the crank one) that will turn on/off as needed when the engine gets too hot?? Wondering if its something like this - some extra fan sapping more power from the engine?? i really dunno...

Not sure how aircon works exactly but maybe there is a problem with cooling efficiency on really hot days? The temperature guage never moves once its up to temp so it doesn't seem too bad...

I should stress that the air conditioning DOES work well and has no problems cooling the car down, so I dont think there are problems with the compressor pulley or anything (wouldn't this affect driving with aircon off as well?? - since i think the aircon belt spins all the time regardless of whether aircon is on or off...correct me if i'm wrong).

And I have no problems with performance with air-con turned off. its only when air-con is on it just seems to really bog down and takes a while to build revs up when taking off from stand-still (taking off normally that is, I dont generally like to push the car very hard when its hot - its not good for it).

Thanks for the replies - on the one hand it sounds like many people just live with a loss in performance with a/c on and on the other hand it sounds like there may be some problem there...

I'll take more notice over the next couple of weeks and see if I can identify if it appears to be only when its under load (ie. a/c on and 30+ degrees outside, hot inside).

[Stinky Rooster]

Steve,

Yes the aircon belt does spin all the time, but the next time you have the bonnet up and the engine running, have a close look at the front of the air con compressor and you will see that there is a clutch in the front that means the compressor is only turning when the air con is on. If the compressor is on its way out, the power required to turn it wil slowly become higher and higher. This can be caused by the belt being too tight, but in my experience this usually causes the clutch to let go rather than the compressor. Have a good look at the body of the compressor because they (usually) only run a bush type bearing in the rear of the case and if this has been knocked about it will lead to a slight binding that MAY cause the symptoms you are describing.

Just my 2 cents worth...

[66yostagea]

having the windows down creates more drag stagea already has the aerodynamics of a brick no need to make it worse

ska doesnt notice as he has a manual he compensates for lack of power with delay in changing gears autos dont do this too well

Does anyone know the Drag Factor of a Stagea. I think it is called the CD Factor.?

When I bought the RMR30, in 83, it had the lowest drag factor of all the vehicles I was considering.

[GoldZilla]

Does anyone know the Drag Factor of a Stagea. I think it is called the CD Factor.?

When I bought the RMR30, in 83, it had the lowest drag factor of all the vehicles I was considering.

"Cd" is correct, it stands for Co-efficient of Drag. I'm guessing the Stagea would have a CD of 0.38 or something ridiculous like that.

[stasis]

actually i have read in some japanese mag a kind of compressor oil additices that you can add and you will imporve by about 10% of performance with the ac on

[Wildcat]

ohhhh i will have my air con regassed on thursday cant wait hopefully i wont have any problems

[pixel8r]

Steve,

Yes the aircon belt does spin all the time, but the next time you have the bonnet up and the engine running, have a close look at the front of the air con compressor and you will see that there is a clutch in the front that means the compressor is only turning when the air con is on. If the compressor is on its way out, the power required to turn it wil slowly become higher and higher. This can be caused by the belt being too tight, but in my experience this usually causes the clutch to let go rather than the compressor. Have a good look at the body of the compressor because they (usually) only run a bush type bearing in the rear of the case and if this has been knocked about it will lead to a slight binding that MAY cause the symptoms you are describing.

Just my 2 cents worth...

Thanks - I'll check it out - or rather get someone more knowledgeable to check it out sometime

Also I noticed the ~30cm fan that sits in front of the radiator was ON today - even with the a/c off. I presume this fan is for extra cooling if the car is running too hot? It was 38degrees today so that would make sense. I also presume that this is normal operation...my temp guage was no different to normal so I hope I have no cause for concern. I did a coolant flush only a month ago.