I have had my car a little over a week. When I engage the climate control (no matter what temperature setting), the AC turns on. I can set the temp for 65 or 85, it still happens. Since its cold now and the car's interior is being warmed, I turn the AC off and leave the climate control on.

Is there some reason that the AC automatically turns on when I enage the climate control? And should I be turning the AC off? Or just leave it on?

Thanks,

 

AC is not the same as temperature conditioning. AC just removes humidity from the air, the heating/cooling elements change the temperature. You should leave it on.

 

What he said.... Also I find that the Auto setting works well in cold weather, it won't start blowing until the car is warm enough to produce warm air and it is directed to the floor vents to rise, but I don't care for Auto in hot weather. Keeps blowing too hard and too long even after you are freezing.

 

When ever you have your climate control in auto mode the AC will be on. This is true in any car where you set the temp to auto. At least in the 8 or so I have had over the years.

 

Yes, aware of that. Also if you press the "Mode" while in Auto it will kick you back to Manual climate control, but AC will remain on unless you press the AC button to disable it.

 

The feedback here seems to be that I should not disable the AC......that I should leave it on even when I am in auto mode, even in the cold weather.

 

Yes. A/C does not mean "air cold". It means air *conditioning*. It Conditions the air to remove humidity. I only turn my AC off if I am driving with the windows down. A/C does not affect temperature.

 

Question - does the compressor run when "a/c" is on yes or no (when cold air is not needed). I have always, in all vehicles over the years, pressed the ac button so the compressor would not run. In fact in my audi the ac button was labeled "econ" ! I'm wondering if ya'll are right about this? In wifes hondapilot I can feel the compressor shut off. If so, why Iis it being advocated here to leave ac on if cold air is not needed?

 

Yeah pretty much, unless you have ideal temp and humidity outside and jsut want to vent some fresh outside air, but at that point I would usually just have the windows open and turn off the whole climate control system.

 

We weren't really debating whats right or wrong, but more of what climate control functions and options do. For performance or possibly economy you might want to always have AC off, but as far as maximum interior comfort and air "conditioning" you need to use the features as they were intended.

 

Thanks for all the useful feedback. I was confused before but now I am not. The auto mode also turns on the AC as this enables the climate control feature to work as intended regardless of whether the goal is to cool the interior or warm it up.

 

There you go, I couldn't say it better myself!

 

I'm not sure thats the feedback.

I only turn my a/c on when I want cooling and/or dehumidification. Why turn the a/c to waste the gas when it doesn't need to be on?

 

Thats where I was coming from. For example, what a waste of fuel, performnce and compressor wear to run the "ac" all winter long? Unless I'm missing something here...

 

I guess I was curious as to why the system (auto / climate control.....) would, as a default, when enabled, also enable the AC. This is how the system was designed, so I was curious as to the rationale behind the design.