Air con/Climate

[MickS]

Just had my air con fixed/regassed. Quick question:

If I set the climate to say 18 I'm assuming the air con comes on/off automatically to maintain this temperature. If it does, does the AC indicator also come on to show you that it has kicked in?

Thx
Mick

[UKRPG]

Alright Mick.

When the aircon is on and set to auto the aircon indicator should remain on. You will just here variations in Fan speed to maintain the temperature

When you restart the car it should go back to the same as when you turned it off

[MickS]

So for the climate control to work effectively the air con needs to be switched on, and then the air con adjusts to maintain temperature. How does this affect fuel consumption being constantly on?

Mick.

[Cougarbloke]

Your fuel consumption will decrease, there's no doubt about that but by how much I'm not sure, as I never leave mine on for that exact reason.

[Raggy]

Hi

The Cougar only has semi-automatic climate control so you have to press the a/c button otherwise it will not cool the car below ambient temperature. I find that when the a/c is on and set to Auto, 18 is sometimes not cool enough and Lo is too cold. When this happens setting the temp to Lo and adjusting the fan manually can work better.

[FlamencoAssassin]

I'll second that Raggy, but if you switch on the recirculate button the fan seems to get faster and cools the car a little more. I suppose that's 'cos it's cooling cool air again!
The recirculation will be switched off when you next start the car and it won't engage if you direct all the air to the screen.

I find that fuel economy is up to 1mpg less with the A/C on but sometimes there seems to be no difference. I presume it depends on the outside temp on how hard the A/C has to work when set to auto.

[Jason J]

Originally posted by: Raggy
Hi

The Cougar only has semi-automatic climate control so you have to press the a/c button otherwise it will not cool the car below ambient temperature. I find that when the a/c is on and set to Auto, 18 is sometimes not cool enough and Lo is too cold. When this happens setting the temp to Lo and adjusting the fan manually can work better.

and flamenco assasin i agree with you both as far as fuel consumption i use mine alot and its around 0.3-0.5mpg less than without it but as the other two say depends on air temp outside and how hard your driving.

[P999LTS]

:crazy: I have my aircon on all the time, it seems to make the air in the car much better (i have asthma). The difference in consumption/performance seems negligiable.

In any event you should use it for a short period every month to avoid the unit failing from lack of use

[Groove]

i have a question for you peeps,

Is it just my car or does any one else notice a dip in performance when air-con is engaged. I have been told by ford that it should not make any differance to a V6, but as i did not by from ford,and am having problems with the rover dealer where i bought the car from i can't seem to get a proper answer.

Gav.

[FlamencoAssassin]

Yes Groove, there is a slight loss in performance with the A/C on. It's common in most cars but less noticeable with powerful engines. I sometimes switch it off just before it want to overtake.

[HIGHLANDER]

I had a ford ka luxury:rofl: when i put the air con on it was completly gutless!! I know they are gutless anyway but this thing struggled to even pull away unless you reved the balls of it:banghead:

[P999LTS]

Originally posted by: HIGHLANDER
I had a ford ka luxury:rofl: when i put the air con on it was completly gutless!! I know they are gutless anyway but this thing struggled to even pull away unless you reved the balls of it:banghead:

I would never want to put together the words "Ka" and "luxury"! but my other car is a Ka (aka Bubble) and with the aircon on it dies, in my Cougar (2.5 ATX) I cant tell any difference; I wish however I could combine the road holding of the Ka with the power of the Cougar

:flushed:

[vinie]

Yes you get a slight loss in performance with the AC on. The trick is to turn it off at the lights just before smokin that t*** in his corsage.

If you turn the AC off the Climate control will still try to maintain the temp set but it is less successful. Also if you have the air directed at the windscreen you cannot turn of the AC.

personally I seem to us the AC more in winter than summer get for demising the car.