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Air Con reducing engine power... a lot

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houlty

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Discussion starter · #1 ·
Hi all, i've had my focus for a couple of years now and thought it about time that i ask if its normal for the air con to drain the engine power when turned on.

Basically, if the air-cons on level 2/3/4 unless i chuck loads a revs on the car feels like its gonna stall. it never has stalled yet, but you can imagine how it feels when pulling out on to roundabouts and the engine all but cuts out.

As i mentioned, i can somewhat get around this by throwing lots of revs on before releasing the clutch, but should it have to? is this normal?

My car is a focus silver edition (same innards as a 1.6 zetec i think).

any help / advice is appreciated.

cheers,

tom.
 
#2 ·
Sup Tom!! and [welcome]

The A/C does put some seriouse lag on these little motors, and everybody has probably felt it. Mine has never actually wanted to stall but say at a red light with the AC on if I let of the gas real quick the revs will bounce for a sec around 700. One of the best cures I've heard of is to get a tuner and set your idle a little higher say around 1100
 
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#3 ·
my SVT feels like a NON-SVT zetec with the AC on.....[rofl]


they are just 4-cyl engines, so that AC will bog them down quite a bit.

I'll flick the air to 0 then pull out if I need to go in a hurry.

Normally I drive with the AC off anyways.
 
Discussion starter · #5 ·
ahh, ok. thanks for letting me know its not an issue on just my car.

like HaveBlue83 i do switch it off when i need a quick start. guess i'll just have to live with it or get a new car... hmmm, me thinks what i could afford...
 
#6 ·
agree with everyone else...it freaked me out when i first turned my A/C on...its tried to stall my engine before too, haha...i only use A/C if it is baking hot and raining and im on a long highway or something where i wont need too much power...im all for windows all other times
 
#7 ·
Yah dude, I remembered when I asked that to my dad.

When I had my 95 Escort which only had 88HP w/ AC, my father told me with the AC on it zaps about 25-30HP or something like that, so really it's like 65HP or almost comparative to a Daihatsu. And since I live in the desert, I really don't need AC, although if ur off work and if ur swimming in ur sweat than yah it's useful.
 
#8 ·
R3d_RovrZX3 said:
agree with everyone else...it freaked me out when i first turned my A/C on...its tried to stall my engine before too, haha...i only use A/C if it is baking hot and raining and im on a long highway or something where i wont need too much power...im all for windows all other times
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And also I agree with red rover zx3.
 
#9 ·
A/C doesn't take more then 15 hp.

As for the original poster, sounds like you need a real motor. The 1.6 can't cut it with the A/C on.
 
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#14 ·
i thought the SVT motor wouldnt be so effected by the A/C because its a bit more hi-po... but i guess any small 4 cylinder will have this problem?
 
#16 ·
MichSVT said:
i thought the SVT motor wouldnt be so effected by the A/C because its a bit more hi-po... but i guess any small 4 cylinder will have this problem?
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The problem is that the 4 cyl overhead cam engines produce little power until 3000+ rpm, so when accelerating from a stop or slow speeds that 15 hp drag on the engine makes a big difference when it's only generating say 40-50 hp. This effect will not vary much betwene the zetec and SVT models until at high rpms. But people don't typically cruise around at these high rpms.
 
#17 ·
MichSVT said:
i thought the SVT motor wouldnt be so effected by the A/C because its a bit more hi-po... but i guess any small 4 cylinder will have this problem?
Click to expand...
Yes all 4 cyl. have this problem some more than others. We just don't have the off idle tq that v6's have even really weak ones.
 
#19 ·
^^thats true too. But takeing off slipping the clutch I'm sure you don't just plant the pedal down right? once you get moving then it will cut off till you let of the gas but its still useless for what he is talking about from a take off. You will still get lag. If ound my car is about just has fast has it is with out the a/c the only difference is that the throttle response goes to hell with the a/c on so it feels like its lost about 30hp when its really only loses a little
 
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