When I picked up my car a month ago, my salesmen demonstrated everything in detail. During this demo he pointed out how the A/C button comes on automatically. To cancel the light for the A/C, you need to depress that **** (**** closest to the passenger side). Also, while you have the heat running, then depress the re-circulate button.. the A/C light turns on. My question is this: Is the A/C actually on when you have the heat running? If not, what temperature setting does the A/C actually turn on?

 

When the heat is on in the car the AC is used to dry the air out. This will automatically come on when you switch to the front defrost when heating.

 

Regardless of the setting (defrost, top heat, feet heat), when I swith to re-circulate, the A/C turns on. And when you depress the A/C button, it deaults to fresh air. Is this the way it is supposed to work?

 

Mine does that too.It sucks because when you're
in the city the "fresh air" is not so fresh.
I usually keep it on re-circulate.With the temp.
set at 75 warm air still blows out even though
the AC light is on.

 

Just chatted with an engineer from Nissan at an interview I had and mentioned this. He stated that the compreesor will only kick in if the temp SET requires it. ie if you have the temp at 70 and it is 60 out the compressor won't go on but if it is 80 it will to get it down to 70 --

 

hmm... mines sometimes just automatically comes on - **** is irritating. When I turn on my car often times ( BTW - it's cold in Seattle) AC starts up for no apparent reason Rather bothersome to turn it off when it has no business being on.

 

AC is AIR CONDITIONER.

now consider the term, youll notice it doesnt inherently require the air to be cold. it simple dehumidifies the air, meaning youd want even heat to go through the AC. it will still be warm.

for those that are confused... just set it all to auto, the car handles it all perfectly. only thing you need to hit is the circulate button if you dont want outside air. the rest will handle itself...

 

If you set it on recirculate and the a/c didn't come on all of your windows will fog up, try it on an older imported car with manual controls.

 

Almost. In order to dehumidify, the air must be cooled below its dew point temperature, then, if it were too cold for the temperature being called for by the T-stat, it would have to be reheated. Sometimes it's cold enough outside get some "free cooling" by just ventilating with outside air. In that case, I wouldn't want the A/C compressor to operate, putting wear and tear on it. You can't dehumidify the air without running the A/C compressor (unless you can ventilate with air from outside that happens to be dryer).

Correct, ares. It does do a good job in auto mode. Recirculate air until it is the proper temperature - or until the windows start to fog - and then go to fresh air mode.

WayneTN

 

Was wondering the same thing myself the other day. But i just set it to auto now and just change the temp accordingly to the weather. I just leave the A/C on. If i turn it off.. all my windows start to fog up at night time. Auto does a decent job in regulating the temps IMO