Aircon or NOT....?

[MUSH]

Im busy piecing together my S3 big turbo setup, and with the engine now sat in the bay (thread to be updated soon), im finding that the air con pipes in the rear offside of the bay are seriously in the way.

Now ive had many cars with air con, and not one of them did i ever use. I dont even use the aircon in my company car that costs me noting to run!!

So, the dilemma is this...

Should i ditch the air con system, knowing i wouldnt use it, and that my vision of performance over gimmicky refinement is better suited to my end goal? By the way the missus is in favour of this also, she reckons air con dries her out (lol) and that it wouldnt get used.

Or, should i keep it as even though the objective is performance, it would be "nice" to have given that it is an S3, the luxurious hot hatch of the noughties?

Two very important points...

*Resale value to me is irrelevant, as i want to develop this car for quite a while, and after the extensive modification is completed, it wont exactly be "another" S3.

*I have a sunroof also...!

Thoughts please chaps...

 

[superkarl]

Ditch it

 

[AndyMac]

God I use it all the time and would never buy a car without it, climate control, not aircon that is. If you've never used it, then you mean you turn off the snowflake everytime you get in the car? Find that hard to believe, but if so then it'll be ****** anyway as it's designed to be used all year round otherwise all the seals dry out and crack and you end up with no gas. Resale value would be the only concern, which you're not bothered about so you might as well ditch it.

 

[Ginge]

I always turn off the aircon... so I'd say ditch it.
Did'nt know it should be allowed to run though?
Atleast if it de-gasses because I never use it it won't matter because I never use it

 

[MUSH]

Well, ive never driven this car, but i had a mk4 golf with climate and i turned that off. Bit of investigation required to see if its easy enough to move the pipes, if not it may be coming out!

 

[Welly]

I'm going to bin my air con. I never use it (mainly as it's broken) and it's heavy. Think of the weight loss....

 

[MUSH]

Just been in to have a good dig around, took the turbo off and had a poke around. Found that with the mounts all aligned and the pipes fettled there is enough room now. Its tight but with decent heatshielding would be good enough. Although
now ive had to bash the upper bulkhead a bit to gain clearance.

Now its got me thinking though, do i even want it? And if it broke like yours Welly, would i even fix it?? Hmm much deliberation to be had...

 

[Welly]

Now its got me thinking though, do i even want it? And if it broke like yours Welly, would i even fix it?? Hmm much deliberation to be had...

I have 2 windows. They let air in when it's hot. What more do I need?

That's my thoughts anyway, all it does if you don't use it (or it's broken like mine) is add another thing for the aux belt to have to spin, and add additional weight.

I plan to bin the compressor, as many of the pipes as possible, and the air con rad.

Binning the air con rad in itself will get better flow to the engine bay and radiator.

 

[steve bain]

you just said you don't want it and resale is not important...why keep it?

 

[Westy]

I remember driving through Belgium on our way to the Ring 5 years ago while they had a 40 degree heatwave. We stopped off at a petrol station and my mate, who had no air con could literally wring out the sweat from his t-shirt. I, on the other hand was in my ice cold clio 182

But in your situation I say bin it.

 

[AndyMac]

I have 2 windows. They let air in when it's hot. What more do I need?

Cold Air? Rather than the even hotter air the windows will let in!