I live in the desert. ANYTHING I can do to make the A/C better is worth it in my opinion. I am doing a bunch of other mods to the car soon and I figured why not also upgrade the radiator and fan shroud while I was at it.

Is this a worthwhile purchase? Obviously an upgraded rad will help the engine out, but I am also mainly looking for better A/C performance.

2007 tc auto trans.

 

no, it won't do anything.

if you want better a/c, tint the windows very dark (as much as reasonable and not the front windshield ofcourse) and also tint the roof or close the shades on them to cut down on the amount of U/V rays entering and heating up the car.

 

oh, and also, you'd be hard pressed to find a better radiator and fan shroud than stock. if you did, it would be very expensive. aftermarket radiators are usually crap.

 

aftermarket fan shrouds on the tc are also crap.

 

https://www.scionlife.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=144526

This person feels otherwise. Thoughts?

 

A/C isn't cooled through the Radiator anyways. The A/C is cooled through its own separate assembly in front of the radiator. A fan shroud won't help it. The best A/C performance you will get is stock, there is really no way to improve it.

 

This person did not do any true tests. Taking a car out after a radiator install and comparing it to stock is near impossible since atmospheric conditions were not the same. Plus they added and additive (Royal Purple ICE) to the radiator. Also they claim DEXCOOL is pure crap, hard to believe GM/TOYOTA would put a clearly inferior product in a car. None the less, with all that said, a radiator upgrade is not a bad thing for a car, it will help to cool the vehicles engine more efficiently, however the A/C is not run off the main radiator so it provides no use to this thread.

 

So if I can't get a better A/C out of an upgraded radiator what *can* I get?

 

What is the problem with the A/C exactly? It cools the car yes? The hotter it is outside obviously the longer to achieve maximum cooling efficiency.

 

put up those sun shades in the front window when youre parked...try parking under shade...

close the window while the AC is on is a big one that helps... but seriously, theres nothing you can really do to make the A/C cool the car faster...maybe you could shove dry ice in your vents? itll have a nice fog going to cool you down

 

if you read the manual, it tells you to cool the car down as quickly as possible on a hot day, to open all the windows and sun roof and run the fan on max power for a couple minutes to blow out all the hot air, then close the windows and the sunroof. then remember, after that, it is about keeping the hot solar energy out of the car so the a/c can work at it's best.

 

The problem is I live in the desert where it is 110 degrees in the summers and there is ZERO shade here. I'm just exploring every avenue to get better performance out of the car. Not just engine, but fringe things like the A/C

 

like was posted, tint the windows and the sunroofs(everyone forgets those) get a sunshade for the windshield maybe even some that are big enough for the back glass, leave the front two windows cracked an inch while parked, those sunshades and the tinted windows will knock it down 10 to 20 degrees(below outside temp)

 

seriously the sunshade things are crucial. tint your windows are much as legally allowed or hell go even darker if you feel you wont get busted on it. cracking the windows also lets some air flow through and heat escape. i also close the passenger side a/c vent so i can give the other vents that can actually reach me more pressure when i run the a/c.

 

yeah you will not get better performance out of your system, its just not possible, trust me I'm actually certified, until the industry switches to the new refrigerant it can't get any colder, but probably in the next 5 years r-134a will be replaced with the newer refrigerent that has even better cooling ability because it has higher thresholds for freezing and vaporizing, but you would have to retrofit your system just like anyone that has retrofitted from r-12 to r-134a

 

Like nightbeat said. I'd also like to add that your engine is designed to run at a specific operating temperature. Its possible to get crap performance from a motor that is too cold. And if you did ever upgrade your fan and radiator, you'd need to replace the thermostat to a cooler one to actually run cooler.