So, have any of you guys found any problems letting the xa idle with the ac on like in head traffic, riding a ferry? I am thinking about a job change that would require me to wait in line for a ferry ride of 30 minutes and ride and its going to be getting hot out soon and cant imagine sweating it out 45 minutes twice a day or worse to worse, have my car catch on fire or something from running the ac or heat in the winter.

Thanks

The fan kicks on more :P
other than that I have idled and left ac on, I have taking long road trips with it on. no problems just like there shouldnt be.

i don't know...45 minutes of idling with the A/C on? sounds like a waste to me, open the windows and take a cooler of gatorade or water bottles with you.

a waste...yeah maybe on his wallet lol I mean if you are in traffic, 95 degrees outside high humidity, no wind then hell no im not putting the windows.

Yeah, its hot and humid here. I see my ac varies, when its first turned on it blows cool in 3 seconds, then starts to fade, as I start to get up to speed and move vs stop and go driving it starts to cool a second time s start to warm. As is at fast food places in thedrive through it fades from cold to luke warm, then when I pull off it starts to cool again. Seems as it fades the fan revs up into high speed.

Maybe its not 45 minutes total, but an example.

a waste...yeah maybe on his wallet lol I mean if you are in traffic, 95 degrees outside high humidity, no wind then hell no im not putting the windows.

Nah U should be straight.... Just gonna waste a lot of fuel... Cars burn the most when idling...

Thanks. Will give it a few test drives.

Nah U should be straight.... Just gonna waste a lot of fuel... Cars burn the most when idling...

cars don't burn the most fuel when idling, they burn the most fuel when accelerating. but since your idling, your technically getting zero miles per gallon. when idling, you burn about .25 gph, or gallongs for hour, so in an hour, you would have burned about 1/4 a gallon of gas.

but that really isn't that good because the car gets hot too, and just sitting there for so long in the heat and humidity, idling, while running the a/c and only having that little electric fan to pool air through the radiator...i wouldn't put my car through that.

Yeah, a lot of cars now are starting to come with transmissions that drop into neutral when stopped rather than stay in gear. Saves gas for whatever reason.

Nah U should be straight.... Just gonna waste a lot of fuel... Cars burn the most when idling...

cars don't burn the most fuel when idling, they burn the most fuel when accelerating. but since your idling, your technically getting zero miles per gallon. when idling, you burn about .25 gph, or gallongs for hour, so in an hour, you would have burned about 1/4 a gallon of gas.

but that really isn't that good because the car gets hot too, and just sitting there for so long in the heat and humidity, idling, while running the a/c and only having that little electric fan to pool air through the radiator...i wouldn't put my car through that.

zero miles per gallon.... :rofl:


man if you say so... Do U know how inefficient cars are idling, especially if they're in gear??

Plus you just pretty much validated my claim... Sitting there idling while your AC runs and your motor heating up because of less air movement to cool the radiator, then to top it off your fan has to turn on to cool the motor in addition..... That in turn BURNS GAS....

I bet you idling for an hour vs. me driving for an hour is going to burn more fuel....

The OP is more worried about engine problems not about gas milage.

Yeah, what he said. I think it maybe quicker to drive it vs taking the ferry and better on the car.

The OP is more worried about engine problems not about gas milage.

Don't do it!!!!! I am suprised no one else knows this little tid bit.. screw mileage, screw the fan running which causes more gas consumption(a gas powered fan???) The real casualty will be your cataltic converters. They have to have heat to work but heat kills them. It might not happen this summer, but by spring, my friend, you willl be having problems. Expensive problems You don't have as many problems with the heat during driving because of the cooling effect of the surrounding air as you move, even thru slow traffic.

xA's have electric fans...but I dont know about the cat being ruined, it could be true idk lol.

I find that when my xB idles it burns about 0.1gph so at $4 a gallon it seems like 40 cents an hour for a cool car is pretty cheep. Now it will jump up a little when the fan kick in and the compressor also but you just run it on recirculate and the lowest fan speed and max cold and it should be ok. You should also try to leave space between the car ahead of you so you get some cooling air into the radiator. The AC works well when the condensor in front of the radiator is cool but as it gets hot removing the heat from inside the car it will not cool as well - bigger difference in temperature - so keeping air moving through it is essential. A lot of people in traffic get right up on the bumper of the car ahead of them and get all their heat coming off their back end. So keep back or off to the side a little too and note which way the wind is blowing sometimes help to get some fresh air into the grill. When you are not moving, the car should cool down and stay cool unless you have a dark body color and are sitting in the sun DUH tiz why I got a Polar White xB! Last thing is to throw a little rev (1500-2000rpm) in the engine once in a while when the radiator fans are running to increase coolent circulation in the engine to the radiator.

I find it very strange that someone that belongs to a group called gassavers.org recommends sitting with the engine running getting 0 mpg for almost an hour!

You are putting a lot of wear and tear on your car, shut it off and go into the lounge, it's air conditioned.
Besides, it won't be long before what you want to do is illegal anyways. Some podump town in WI wants to outlaw fast food drive thru's.

Not recommending it just giving the facts about how much fuel it will burn. I have sat in traffic in my previous car in 90 degree temps for 45 minutes without AC and know what it is like. I tried turning the engine off at a red light once in my xB and when I started it back up it really didn't run well for about 15 seconds which is about the length of the green light so I will not be doing that again. As far as saving gas goes I do over 400 miles on 10 gallons so it is not so bad if you get things running properly. My trips out of town about 20 miles get me about 50mpg but the around town bops kill it when I HAVE to use the drive up window at the bank because the lobby closes an hour earlier I end up driving 0.2 miles to the bank and back after walking there already and not getting in to make a deposit.

Not recommending it just giving the facts about how much fuel it will burn. I have sat in traffic in my previous car in 90 degree temps for 45 minutes without AC and know what it is like. I tried turning the engine off at a red light once in my xB and when I started it back up it really didn't run well for about 15 seconds which is about the length of the green light so I will not be doing that again. As far as saving gas goes I do over 400 miles on 10 gallons so it is not so bad if you get things running properly. My trips out of town about 20 miles get me about 50mpg but the around town bops kill it when I HAVE to use the drive up window at the bank because the lobby closes an hour earlier I end up driving 0.2 miles to the bank and back after walking there already and not getting in to make a deposit.


Now that would just p me off !!! Let me guess, no walkups allowed at the drive up window, right? :tap:

Yeah for INSURANCE REASONS darn lawyers run every inch of our lives. Lowered my fuel average for the day from 50 to 45 from that one short trip which is why I average 41-42 per tank but get 50's on the 20 mile runs home and back.

You are preaching to the choir, now!!!

I cant find the adding a fan thread, but I did it. I got a 10 inch fan and used my old after market fog light harness to power and switch it. It keeps the oem fan on low speed and it even cycles off from time to time. The ac does feel colder.

I zip tied it to the passenger side of the condensor, will have photos soon.

That's a great idea to run a secondary cooling fan and as long as you don't forget to turn it off or it goes off with the key you should be cool. I was thinking it would be nice to be able to run the heater fan with the key on accessory but alas the car gods forbit it! so you have to keep turning the ignition on to operate the power windows or listen to the constant beep when you have the door open and the radio on or sit with the windows up and sufficate on a hot day.
WHAT EVER HAPPEND TO THE PARK MODE SETTING HUH?

I do that a lot. I will let the fan blow on recirculate with the engine off in hot or cold weather to save gas, then restart it every few minutes and turn the engine back off.

I wouldnt mind an alarm system that would allow all windows rolled down at the touch of a button or turns on/off your lights. I was walking to my mail box the other night and one of my neighbors did just that. Not roll down his windows, but turned on his lights at me.

That's a great idea to run a secondary cooling fan and as long as you don't forget to turn it off or it goes off with the key you should be cool. I was thinking it would be nice to be able to run the heater fan with the key on accessory but alas the car gods forbit it! so you have to keep turning the ignition on to operate the power windows or listen to the constant beep when you have the door open and the radio on or sit with the windows up and sufficate on a hot day.
WHAT EVER HAPPEND TO THE PARK MODE SETTING HUH?

Hey, at least in our cars we can still sit and listen to the radio with the accy switch. We might die doing it, but we can.

Theres a photo of the fan in my profile. Its make the ac icy cold, however seems it needs to idle at 2 grand for max effect when parked. I think the condensor grill is just too fine to allow sufficient cooling. Most radiators and other coolers Ive seen have rather large spacing between the fins and coils.

So, you are just runnunig it straight from a hot switch? Not tied into any thermostat wires or anything to make it complicated?

Sorry. I want to run the trigger wire to the fog light harness to the acc fuse, but right now its hot and I could forget and leave it on. It is a rather noticable whirl so I havent forgot yet to turn it off.

What I would love to so is wire it to one of the ac sensors so it comes on with the oem fan when the ac is turned on.

So, you are just runnunig it straight from a hot switch? Not tied into any thermostat wires or anything to make it complicated?

Hummm...... about 3 degrees colder til you hit 45mph, then it makes no difference.

On those hot days I wouldn't mind being able to cool the radiator a little before the 205 degrees it usually has to reache before the fans come on either but I think the ECU controls the fan motor and jumping it with 12 volts would probably feed back into the power circuit of the ECU fan control . . . not a good thing. Need to check the circuit diagram in my archives to see what I can find as to how it all works.

You might want to check your condensor to make sure it is not blocked with pollen and dirt - I noticed that a lot of the black paint is being chipped off by rocks hitting my front grill area . . . people keep pulling in front of me on the highway WAY too close.

Sorry. I want to run the trigger wire to the fog light harness to the acc fuse, but right now its hot and I could forget and leave it on. It is a rather noticable whirl so I havent forgot yet to turn it off.

What I would love to so is wire it to one of the ac sensors so it comes on with the oem fan when the ac is turned on.
So, you are just runnunig it straight from a hot switch? Not tied into any thermostat wires or anything to make it complicated?

That shoud be easy enuff to do, just chase the wires from the fan and see which terminates near the AC.....

does anybody else get the shudder when idling at a light while running air (with or w/o AC). it's not my fans kicking on too cool my engine, that's different.
i get a weird rattling noise that is starting to bother me. should i worry or is it perfectly normal?

it shudders when you have the stock air intake box still installed in your car...

Iknow what you mean. The ground wire mod removes the hunt for the perfect idle speed where it will shutter with nothing on. With the mod its a rock solid idle with nothing on. With ac on it will shutter when the oem fan kicks in, then it will idle up to 750. The second fan has reduced the frequency the oem fan kicks in, but mines still does that with oem air box.

http://a839.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/88/l_5cf3a503a3de53d8b4f8bca7a16a264e.jpg

almost looks like you can fit another fan in there for more cooling power :wink: heh

I had no idea that one fan nearly covered half the radiator as is. I thought it was just a third meaning there was room for 3 fans across the front. The oem fan seems to have the other side covered well. Still it will kick into high speed, but it does cycle off too.

I went from Richmond to VA Beach to jet ski and visit my aunt yesterday. We were nice and cold the whole way, even idling in traffic for the tunnel.

That one fan did enough for me. No plans for a second fan.

almost looks like you can fit another fan in there for more cooling power :wink: heh

where do you get the fan at?... and how much?

On the xB forums, it was talked about that when our air switches are at the defogger position(2 different settings) , it is actually using AC !!! Just a heads up for those who don't know.

Yeah just about all cars do that - the trick is to rotate the vent control knob just 1 click away from the beginning of the defrost position (1/2 notch) so that the A/C doesn't kick on but the vent to the windshield is open a little.

Its a generic add on electric fan for 105hp engines and less I got at advance auto for around 60 bucks. They keep em near the aftermarket tranny coolers. Well worth it.

Yup, ac on defrost. My old benz you had a knob you rotate that made ac come on or not and you can deflect teh air to all areas or just one without ac. I had the air deflected to all areas as I had terrible problems with the windows fogging from the leaking heater core and all the leaks in that car.