AirCon performance

[SumoDog68]

Does anyone know of a website that would compare Aussie market cars aircon performance. I managed to find this one which is for indian cars.
http://www.indiacar.com/infobank/aircontest2.htm
In this hot weather conditions one would think that aircon performance would be one of the buying points when choosing between cars but the situation seems to be similar to tyres, all hearsay and no hard data.

[benoxr]

Through all the Fords I’ve had with air-cond, 2 x XC’s, XE, EB and BA, the cars performance has always struggled whilst using the air-cond. Sure the car interior gets cooled ok, but the car is sluggish. The BA was so bad on one occasion. I was nearly collected when turning right at a set of lights because the car took off with about half its usual power. Turn off the air cond, all back to normal. But unless your going to buy both a “summer car” and a “winter car”, I wouldnt think the performance of the air cond is going to be a deciding factor in what you buy. Its either got air-cond or it hasnt. Dont know of any websites that compare, except maybe choice.com.au, but how reliable the information would be anyhow, would be debatable I suspect.

[SumoDog68]

You are right , there is not much information available on how aircons perform in cars. It probably would not be the most important thing when buying a car but if the cars are close in safety and performance features than i would buy the one that has better aircon . Especially with global warming issues ;-)

[Iggypoppin']

never had a problem, same performance in my BA as normal. Which seems to go against the grain as I have heard otherwise from many BA drivers (as above). One thing is that as my thermo kicks in, the whole car vibrates horribly for two to five minutes then settles down..

[Copie]

I do not notice a difference with mine, i do notice however a change in my fuel economy.

[whynot]

Originally Posted by benoxr

Through all the Fords I’ve had with air-cond, 2 x XC’s, XE, EB and BA, the cars performance has always struggled whilst using the air-cond. Sure the car interior gets cooled ok, but the car is sluggish.

I am reasonably sure that the FG and Territory disengage the A/C clutch during wide open throttle.

In don’t think that air conditioner performance is an issue these days for Australian released vehicles. Nearly every current model car that I have driven (covering Fords, Holden, Toyota, Mazda, Subaru, and Nissan) has more than satisfactory cooling capacity for summer.

[Silver Ghia]

Originally Posted by 76txcoupe

never had a problem, same performance in my BA as normal. Which seems to go against the grain as I have heard otherwise from many BA drivers (as above). One thing is that as my thermo kicks in, the whole car vibrates horribly for two to five minutes then settles down..

No problem at all either with the climate aircon on automatic all the time in the BA Ghia which works just as well as the AU Fairy I had previously. Don't notice anything such as performance loss, slight jolt, vibration or anything that would indicate that its on or off, also fuel consumption winter or summer is pretty much the same (less than 10l/100km). And it was nice and cool tonight going home in the 41 deg C heat. Just worried that the car that will eventually replace this won't have an aircon as good.

[Iggypoppin']

You get 10l/100klm?? Where do I sign up?

[Wally]

It's interesting how air conditioners in buildings have to meet a minimum MEPS rating upwards of 3, yet car air con is typically less than 2.

SumoDog68 for a family sedan think around 4.5kW input for 9kW refrigeration at about 3000 rpm compressor clutch speed.

You may have to look up replacement compressorrs for the cars you are interested in then look up the parent site, like Sanden (sankyo), etc

[Mr Hardware]

SLOW DOWN DUDES! This thread isn't about 0-100 performance with aircon, it's about inside cabin degrees performance of aircon!!!!!111oneone

[Rodp]

Never noticed a problem with my BA and air-con performance. It was adequate for Sydney weather, cooled the cabin down after a minute or two on full.

The aircon in my EF Ghia was far superior though, until it failed monumentally and had to have it converted from the 'old gas' to the 'new gas'. Noticed quite a large difference in cool air after that. :(

[kocho]

My BA gets a bit sluggish with the aircon on (and it's hot).... guess is probably around 60 - 70% of what it usually is? Engine fans run quite a bit too and the thermometer goes to almost half way.

Whether or not that's normal, I'm not sure.

[DayTE]

From write ups I've seen over the years, locally made large cars ie Falcon and Commodore the A/C is fine at most/all speeds and conditions.

With some of the Japanese manufactured cars especially the smaller ones the A/C will shut off at full throttle or heavy loads.

I read an article onthe current shape 1st gen Nissan Maxima that over 160km/h it shut the A/C off. I know now we can't legally do these speeds but at the time the car was being test driven in NT by Wheels or Motor mag.

The point I'm trying to get across, is generally cars that are designed, built and tested to Aussie conditions will perform far better than vehicles built for other markets.

[XR Martin]

The performance of the aircon can vary quite a bit. Ive been in vehicles with really good A/C, yet get into a different car of the same make and model and it could be sh!thouse. Doesnt seem to be any real standard.

Utes are generally pretty good as there is not alot of space to cool, less glass, and the A/C system is normally designed for the larger versions of that vehicle (dual cabs, wagons, sedans etc)

[Dave R]

FG Falcon air con is complete crap, alot of owners will agree.

[Franco Cozzo]

Originally Posted by Adrenaline

FG Falcon air con is complete crap, alot of owners will agree.

Same with WS Fiesta, doesn't seem to be built to our conditions.

[SumoDog68]

It would be interesting to hear from people in the know when it comes to car airconditioning. I know that Denso is a big supplier of aircons but even they would have different models with different charateristics.
I always thought that Landcruiser/Patrol heavy duty 4WDs wouyld have a strong aircon performance given a fact they are designed to traverse difficult terrains in all sorts of climates. Thing is i never owned one of those so can't comment.

[mik]

Originally Posted by Adrenaline

FG Falcon air con is complete crap, alot of owners will agree.

how is it crap, does`nt have much airflow or just does`nt get cold? or something else?

[Joshmcmillan]

Never had a noticeable performance drop in either of our BA's when air con is on.

[Tobey]

I get quite a noticable drop of power. But the Aircon works great in my ute.

[deesun]

Only very slight performance drop in my LPG SVI BA. Nothing I wouldn't expect.

[Bluehoon]

Check the condition of the ignition and cooling systems. both play havoc with A/C performance.
bad plugs / coils on a hot day with air con will degrade performance all round considerably..

Cheers

[vanman_75]

Originally Posted by SumoDog68

It would be interesting to hear from people in the know when it comes to car airconditioning. I know that Denso is a big supplier of aircons but even they would have different models with different charateristics.
I always thought that Landcruiser/Patrol heavy duty 4WDs wouyld have a strong aircon performance given a fact they are designed to traverse difficult terrains in all sorts of climates. Thing is i never owned one of those so can't comment.

patrol air con in the 3 litres is a joke , took mine back in after the first couple weeks when new,as they wont run cool at idle or even high idol.
when up and revving its fine ,no this isn't a 1 off every 3 litre at work is exactly the same and we have heaps of them, Nissan say its fine but then they gas them with rpm i guess . no probs with the older patrols or 4.2s though you cant get them anymore .
it really annoys me ,bad air con that is, i live in north qld .hope the next patrol this issue is sorted or they wont see my business ......where has the quality gone.

[duaned]

Have to admit the air-con in my BF is nothing short of brilliant! We generally leave it set on 23deg, and even that can be a little cold at times!

[benoxr]

Originally Posted by Bluehoon

Check the condition of the ignition and cooling systems. both play havoc with A/C performance.
bad plugs / coils on a hot day with air con will degrade performance all round considerably..

Cheers

funny you say that because I feel I need to replace the plugs and/or coils so after I do this I will see what its like with the aircon on.

Like we do with other parts to our cars, is there any reason to seek out better quality aftermarket parts to an air cond unit?

[Franco Cozzo]

In my Fiesta, the air is only mildly cool and it seems to take a long time for it to actually start coming out cool from the vent.

[Silver Ghia]

How's the aircon in the new Mondeos? I read they may be inadequate, but appear its because they dont have enough gas in them from the factory?

[mik]

Originally Posted by XCPWSF

In my Fiesta, the air is only mildly cool and it seems to take a long time for it to actually start coming out cool from the vent.

is the heater turning off properly?