AC on or off?!!?

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selector007

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What is the answer??

When I turn my climate control on AUTO the AC light comes on which therefore means AC is on. I always turn this off as I usually use AC in the summer not the winter. So do i turn this off or do i leave this on?

What do you guys do?
 
Air con works more effectively all year round imho. :) x
 
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Climate control gives you warm/hot air too and will keep the cabin at the temp you set it to so it's used all year round.
 
selector007 said:
Doesn't the air con use more petrol?
Click to expand...

Yes it does, but its not that much to be honest, think i would rather be wam and comfortable and have mist free windows than worry about a small drop in fuel consumption. :) x
 
Depends how cold it is pal!:think:
 
I rarely use my climate to be honest. Never get steamed up windows and the car still heats up the same. Only on the absolute hottest of summer days do I use it and even the I prefer the windows open really.
 
from what I can remember AC puts your tailpipe emissions up slightly, but only hinders fuel economy by about 0.1MPG or something like that...nothing to really worry about, if your vehicle is quiet old it will hit it harder as the pump gets more worn and tired, new cars your shouldn't notice
If mines on or off still only get about 28MPG hahaha
 
just leave it on, it wont use loads of fuel in winter as only the dryer is running
i leave mine on auto 22 all the time, haven't touched it since i got the car
 
selector007 said:
What is the answer??

When I turn my climate control on AUTO the AC light comes on which therefore means AC is on. I always turn this off as I usually use AC in the summer not the winter. So do i turn this off or do i leave this on?

What do you guys do?
Click to expand...

Do what you want!:yes:
Drive at a steady slow speed, switch air-con on and feel the drag...
 
fangio said:
Drive at a steady slow speed, switch air-con on and feel the drag...
Click to expand...

Buy a car with a bigger engine! Can't feel it on the 170. On my 140 Golf you could just feel it. On my 1.6 petrol Golf you could very much feel it.

And on the loan Fiesta I had the other week it felt like someone had filled the boot with concrete. I don't know why they bother to put aircon on cars with tiny engines if they can't cope.
 
audi upgrades
your audi aircon/climate control is designed to be ran permanently, once you start turning it off and/or using the econ function, thats when problems start with it!
just leave it on and be comfortable! :happy:
 
i leave mine on most of the time it doesnt really put alot of drag on apart from when its on LO for the first 10 mins then its fine just leave it on as said it helps to demist windows and keep the system running as it was designed to do
 
chinnyhill10 said:
Buy a car with a bigger engine! Can't feel it on the 170. On my 140 Golf you could just feel it. On my 1.6 petrol Golf you could very much feel it.

And on the loan Fiesta I had the other week it felt like someone had filled the boot with concrete. I don't know why they bother to put aircon on cars with tiny engines if they can't cope.
Click to expand...

It still creates the same power drop!

And wears the compressor out much sooner.....

As long as it's run for a while each week it'll be fine.
 
FranA3 said:
i leave mine on most of the time it doesnt really put alot of drag on apart from when its on LO for the first 10 mins then its fine just leave it on as said it helps to demist windows and keep the system running as it was designed to do
Click to expand...

why would you put it on LO?
 
The climate control works regardless if the ac is on or off.
The car will always try to keep the temp at the number you have set it as long as the auto button has been pressed. It's only when you play with the amount of air coming into the cabin (+ & -) that the actual 'climate control' goes to manual adjustment. I quite regularly set the heat i want, press the auto button and then press the e-con button (cars before 2009 dont have an ac button) so I have automatic heat regulation without the ac running

Also if you press the window button on the left side of the unit then the front window demister turns on which also automatically turns on the ac... And I use that every morning.
 
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i just leave mine on auto all the time and let it do its thing.
 
Ste_Nova said:
i tried that today, i set the cruise at 20mph and switch the aircon on and off, it made no difference
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lol Yup modern cars you should feel no difference, if you do the compressors ****** or more likely your **** is lieing, even on the dinky 3 cylinders it should not hinder performance! In the past on say a a 1996 Fiesta you could feel it but with technology now it makes ****** all diff unless your butt dyno can detect fractions of a kW, Atmospherics effect it more lol
 
Ste_Nova said:
the compresser only runs when its needed, in the winter that will be not much
Click to expand...

The compressor clutch engages as soon as you switch air-con on and stays on until you switch it off. The 'econ' button means just that; economic running with compressor dis-engaged. Even the manufacturers know they use more fuel!
 
The MY09 A3 owners manual (p71\72) states that it will cycle as & when needed to maintain the correct temperature when on Auto setting! That's the difference between Climate Control & standard Air Conditioning.

One automatically keeps the cabin to a set temperature\humidity using various sensors & electromechnical flaps, the other requires manual operation. There is no "Econ" button in mine, but it does use more fuel in full auto mode.
 
Last edited:
Air con on.

I know nothing about cars, so probably wrong, but do play with climate control systems.

The aircon compressor engaged should only run when demanded by the electronic climate control system (eccs). The eccs controls the compressor's clutch among other things.

Aircon cooling, vapour cycle process, dehumidifies the air, which is why it demists windows better with it switched on.

Most vapour cycle cooling systems will have a lubricating oil in them to lubricate the compressor, expansion valves, and to keep the seals moist. If a vapour cycle system is not run regularly, the oil could pool which can lead to problems such as gas loss. When the system is re-gassed some of the oil is lost and the technician should replenish the lost oil.
 
On mine I only use to defrost in the winter, and when needed in the summer.

The DIS has a function showing the amount of fuel being used by the aircon, from memeory about 1/10th Gallon per hour at most settings.

Kevin
 
audi upgrades
isn't that on newer models only, or is it a function that can be enabled on any 8P DIS?
 
Just to slightly hi-hack this thread, I have a 2007 sportback 2.0tdi s-line and is currently in audi body shop and the courtesy car is a 2012 standard a3
now after reading this thread i started using auto more in my car and seemed ok but did notice it seemed like it was speed dependant I.e when you hit motorway the fan speed shot up! And if on hi it stayed on full! Then if you knocked temp down to 28 it dropped a bit but still stayed there!
Now in the Courtesy car when set on auto it doesn't automatically shoot to full unless is cold and when it warms up on hi it knocks speed down and doesn't shoot up with speed
( what I see as normal operation) now my question is, is there something wrong with my climate control?
 
Not sure if there is something wrong with your one, on mine if the car is cold an I put it on 28 the fan speed would go up until the inside of the car is really hot and then the fans go down for a bit but the temp in the car would drop again so it would go up and down as nessesary, but bare in mind 28 is really hot so it would take quite a bit of time for the climate unit to get that temp right in the car

You can always get the car scanned on VCDS and see if there is a fault. There is a temp sender in the bottom of the air vents which you can get to if you remove the panels and have a look underneath... Make sure that temp sender is in place as it can get knocked out which would make the system not recognise what temp is inside the car
 
Kash. said:
i just leave mine on auto all the time and let it do its thing.
Click to expand...

Agreed, set the temp to around 20 in the summer and 22 in the winter, and you never need to touch it. With regards to the fuel used, if it's on all the time it won't make any difference. The heated rear screen uses fuel when it's on along with heated seats etc etc, but we still use them.
 
If its not used for a long period of time isn't unhealthy for the gas and seals,
someone told me regularly use the a/c it will last longer?
 
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