Aircon Removal?

[Plunky]

Hi, I have been thinking...is it possible to remove the aircon system to save on a bit of weight etc?
I only say this as today my dads aircon system packed up on his clio sport turbo and he was reccomended to replace the system with a "cup pack", where they remove the whole system and use a shorter belt etc on the existing pulleys. aparently this frees the engine up a bit, as there is less resistance on the engine with the pulley removed, aswell as reducing weight.

Any thoughts?

Liam

 

[ALPINE]

i removed the AC on my scooby, other than giving me space to mount a Oil catch tank it did feck all else.



tho if you do loose it, dibs on your compressor

 

[kek700]

Any one know; with all pipes, radiator and compressor removed what is the weight saved?????

 

[1animal1]

prob not that much when looked upon as a percentage of the entire weight of the car.... either remove it all or dont bother

 

[jonny87]

my mate ripped his aircon out of his mr2, close on 30kg saved, impressive on his car as its light anyway

but a similar saving on a car that weighs almost 1500kg, 5% saving? not worth it on the s3 imo because unless you are going to go all out and totally strip it there isnt much other weight saving to be had, the weight is all in the chassis and bodywork

 

[voorhees]

sounds good but aren't you going to mess about with the balance of the car ?

 

[jonny87]

sounds good but aren't you going to mess about with the balance of the car ?

could just get the corner weights done and suspension setup to suit the different loads (if you had adjustable dampening of course) but then you are getting into track terriority as this is pretty pointless for a road going car, especially just for the same of a few kg on a car that weighs more than the world lol

 

[Matt82]

again, speaking about %ages... i highly doubt youll notice it. the difference would be less than driving about with shopping in the boot or a full tank of fuel

 

[jonny87]

again, speaking about %ages... i highly doubt youll notice it. the difference would be less than driving about with shopping in the boot or a full tank of fuel

agreed, like i said unless you were going to go all out and rip out the interior, use carbon fibre, strip out door panels etc etc maybe
the engine would rev a little bit more freely but then again a lightened single mass flywheel will do this ten fold

 

[mk1chopper]

Clio sport turbo? As for removing its more hassel, it might improve your mpg but thats about it. They do it for 2 reasons on the clio sport cup, 1 weight saving (which is a number of things not just AC) 2. reduce costs. The cup is a cheaper car to buy brand new because its not well spec'd, its also away for Renault to add options to the higher level sport buy having the cup chassie as an option. If you wanted to save weight in the S3 the first thing to do would be ditch the recaros. But the S3 isnt about being a light weight track car, its a lux hot hatch something you can get the weekly food shop in drive with comfort on the motorway and still have fun on the back roads, removing the air con just takes away from the S3 is all about.

 

[Matt82]

personally id think a car like an a3/s3 would be pretty daft without AC. its meant to be a civilised car afterall

if you took the AC out i recon youd regret it

 

[JD09]

Clio sport turbo? As for removing its more hassel, it might improve your mpg but thats about it. They do it for 2 reasons on the clio sport cup, 1 weight saving (which is a number of things not just AC) 2. reduce costs. The cup is a cheaper car to buy brand new because its not well spec'd, its also away for Renault to add options to the higher level sport buy having the cup chassie as an option. If you wanted to save weight in the S3 the first thing to do would be ditch the recaros. But the S3 isnt about being a light weight track car, its a lux hot hatch something you can get the weekly food shop in drive with comfort on the motorway and still have fun on the back roads, removing the air con just takes away from the S3 is all about.

Turbo conversions are a lot more common than they use to be. I'm sat 200 yards from a 2l SC Clio at this moment in time.

The cup version is not meant to be well specc'd. It is meant to be light. Xenons add weight. Leather seats add weight. Aircon adds weight. The Cup chassis is identical, the suspension setup is different.

This is not quite as true with the newer models, but the idea stays the same. Hence "cup packs".

 

[Plunky]

Yeah my Dad owns a 172 which was K-tech's first low boost turbo conversion. Its very fast but after having driven it I feel you cant put the power down at all! it torque steers all over the place but still good fun

I was just seeing if anybody had done this to their a3/s3, I doubt i will take the aircon out to be honest, far too much hassle for the minimal gains you will achieve.

 

[finesse]

Clio sport turbo? As for removing its more hassel, it might improve your mpg but thats about it. They do it for 2 reasons on the clio sport cup, 1 weight saving (which is a number of things not just AC) 2. reduce costs. The cup is a cheaper car to buy brand new because its not well spec'd, its also away for Renault to add options to the higher level sport buy having the cup chassie as an option. If you wanted to save weight in the S3 the first thing to do would be ditch the recaros. But the S3 isnt about being a light weight track car, its a lux hot hatch something you can get the weekly food shop in drive with comfort on the motorway and still have fun on the back roads, removing the air con just takes away from the S3 is all about.

well said

 

[Drue1]

Is there a how too of should I wait till I rip the engine out because everything that's going to save weight its gone

 

[JimmyO]

Did it on my corrado, much better without, less things to break, more room to work on the engine, looks tidier and saved quite a big of weight, (they are heavy bits of kit)

Saying that, the corrado only came with aftermarket aircon, wasn't fitted in the factory so they are a messy/bodged install.

 

[Joshstan]

Seriously don't remove the air con in an s3 I had mine drained to do some work on the engine and havnt had it re gassed yet and this thing with black leather and just about the poorest air circulation from the windows I have ever experienced is really hard to keep cool
The "performance increase" would definitely not be worth the stickiness and sweat!

 

[JimS3]

If you are that fussed about removing the air-con and going super lightweight, you probably bought the wrong car!

Under high load the clutch for the compressor on the S3 disengages, so there is no performance loss from having the aircon switched on.

Just weighed a Audi air con compressor & drier (out an A4 but looks the same) came to 6.4KG.

So assuming the S3 weighs around 1450KG and is pushing 265 bhp (rempapped) then:

With air con 1450KG / 265 = 182.75 bhp per tonne.
Without air con 1444KG / 265 = 183.5 bhp per tonne.

Or to put it another way its the equivalent of gaining 1.08 bhp.

Depends whether you are happy to be roasted to gain that extra 1 horse power, perhaps all the sweat that is shed will help with the weight reduction!

 

[Drue1]

If you are that fussed about removing the air-con and going super lightweight, you probably bought the wrong car!

Under high load the clutch for the compressor on the S3 disengages, so there is no performance loss from having the aircon switched on.

Just weighed a Audi air con compressor & drier (out an A4 but looks the same) came to 6.4KG.

So assuming the S3 weighs around 1450KG and is pushing 265 bhp (rempapped) then:

With air con 1450KG / 265 = 182.75 bhp per tonne.
Without air con 1444KG / 265 = 183.5 bhp per tonne.

Or to put it another way its the equivalent of gaining 1.08 bhp.

Depends whether you are happy to be roasted to gain that extra 1 horse power, perhaps all the sweat that is shed will help with the weight reduction!

Mine is going to be a sprinting,Hill climb car so anything like that in my car will be ripped out as its not needed
So there is going to be a lot of stuff removed from my car so quick and light as possible

 

[JimS3]

Mine is going to be a sprinting,Hill climb car so anything like that in my car will be ripped out as its not needed
So there is going to be a lot of stuff removed from my car so quick and light as possible

Bit different for a track car if you are striping it out anyway, seems pointless on a road car though!

 

[Drue1]

Bit different for a track car if you are striping it out anyway, seems pointless on a road car though!

Would never do it to a road going car as that is not worth the hassle at all