This one's for you owners out there...Now that the summer heat is near its peak, is there a noticeable power loss when your climate control is working hard?

My '99 Accord V6 doesn't suffer from this problem, but my old '90 Integra always felt like someone had just punched it in the stomach when I had to crank the A/C...the reduced acceleration power was obvious, like someone had knocked the wind out of it. Is this a V6 vs. 4cyl. problem or an old car vs. new car thing?

 

there is a slight loss in power, but not to the point where i feel like someone punched justine (car) in the stomach. might be an old car thing...

 

my impression is; that V6 always felt less impacted by A/C....

 

but a second note, TSX is not too bad.. much better then other Accord i had...

 

Never turn it off to find out. What are you, crazy? I'm in Texas.


j/k Of course it goes slower when you have the A/C on.

 

There is a slight loss of power, but very negligible in my opinion.

 

This was something I was wondering, too, as my '96 Integra also suffers from the "gut punch" when turning on A/C - as if it lost 25% of it's power or so. Supposedly this is another disadvantage with 4cyl engines vs. 6cyl. I'm happy to hear this is minimized in the TSX, but it's definitely something I'll still be testing for myself.

 

For me, the A/C does have some impact on power. It is really noticeable when you're in the lower rpm range. With A/C on, more rpms needed to have a smooth take off (I have the 6MT), without A/C I can achieve a smooth take off with much lower rpm (maybe at 1K rpm vs 1.5~1.8K rpm).

 

A/C puts more "load" on your engine. The larger the engine the less noticeable the effect is. A 1.8 liter Integra is going to feel the effect far more than my 3.2 TL. The torquey 2.4 in a TSX should be fine with the A/C on.

 

My 4-cylinder 2-door '90 Accord EX hardly reacts when I turn on the A/C. I feel a very slight sense of a tug, but that's it. I guess if there's any perceptable sense of power loss, it might be in the lowest gear.

 

Has anyone else noticed that the A/C cuts off during hard acceleration? I feel like during or right after flooring it, the air coming from the vents isn't cool for a few seconds before it reverts. I noticed this in my old Saturn as well, and that dealer told me the A/C cuts off to avoid sucking too much power. I'm not sure if this is what is going on with the TSX or not, but it is my feeling that it is.

Overall, I have the A/C on most of the time so I haven't noticed any power differences, though it doesn't seem to be working the engine much... seems pretty efficient actually.

 

Slight loss in power, not much.

But the MOST impressive thing about this is how little the A/C affects the fuel efficiency.
Negligible effect, esp. when compared to no A/C but windows open!