It's been about 7 weeks since I got in my TL...

about last week I noticed that my AC was just pretty much dead,...

I have it at the lowest temperature available and turned up to the full and it still sucks

yes it was 102 degrees in chicago yesterday and i wanted to kill myself and my car

they are not going to charge me for this are they.

 

Hmm...I had my 05 TL for over 6 month now. I've noticed through out this summer that my AirCon is not functioning as well as I was expected also. I've set the temp to the coldest (54 or 55? the LOW) but still feels like 70 ~ 73. I am going to talk to the service soon to find out what the hell is going on. It is brand new car so it should not need a "Free-on", I am wondering....is all the 05 TL has the same issue with Air-con?
Or is all black leather interior is causing this? My body color is Anthracite by the way...

 

Are you using the Auto setting?

If so, does it seem work Ok initially, then goes down hill?

If you answered yes to both of these, your evaporator coil may be freezing up. This is not uncommon in cars or in homes.. I've seen it happen to both. Try using the manual setting and turn off recirculate.

 

That's strange, I've had my TL for a little over a year and my AC is as cold as the day I got it. We've had triple digit temps over the past two weeks and it works as advertised. Definetly take it in to the dealer and have the system checked. Although haven't heard many complaints about the AC sys. Keep us abreast of what's goin on!

 

Mine is always manual, I like to be in charge of everything.....heheheh.
I might say another defect with 05 TL.... All in all, I will talk to service and find out.

 

Same here...I don't use mine much, but because of the heat, I've had to for the last month or so...still works fine (did last summer, too). I have it on auto, set at 73...keeps me nice and cool. If yours doesn't, go to the dealer...it will be a warranty fix, so it won't cost you anything.

 

Black on black cars might have a problem, driving in the city with black on black
might be a real problem.
In the sun, black on black will be tough to cool, add low airflow and low engine
rpm's, along with 125F road temp, and that is a LOT of heat to get rid of!

My white with parchment seems to cool down very well, and the air gets
so cold its painful at times.

Most times its set for 77 or 78, anything less and its too cold.

Brett

 

I have AC problem also. I have 4900 miles on the car. My AC doesn't seem cold either,

 

I attest, there is room for improvement with the AC in my car. I can't remember how well it performed last summer.

 

anything over a 20F drop from outside temp (in shade) to inside vent is good. stick a thermometer in the vent-

 

The compressor went out on my 4 month old '04 last summer. Got in, after work, and got nothing but hot air. Dealer was stumped on what happened. Replaced the compressor and she's been fine ever since. Take it to the dealer.

 

Yesterday it was super hot, I doubt anyone's AC worked that great Tae. I had mine at 59F and on 4 today on the way home and it was comfortable.

 

yeah yesterday was insane.
but i am taking it in to get it checked out on Thursday at Joe Rizza Acura since it hasn't work any other day either.

btw, are you affiliated with the UofC in any way? I think I read one of your posts saying that's one of the places you parked your TL?

 

My 04 tl's ac compressors was leaking, had it replaced under warranty, car had 16,000 miles when it happened.

 

SouthernBoy have a very valid point here. My HVAC at home the coil froze up and I wasn't getting any cold air out of the vent, so I had the tech come and and fixed it. My TL on the other hand has the direct opposite problem, at 70 degrees, it feels like 60 and if I ever set it to 65 degrees, it gets way too cold. Even on a hot and humid day like yesterday where the outside temp reads 97. My AC lowers the temp way too quickly too, it would drop from 97 to 70 in about 5 minutes.

 

The TL's A/C can cool a small house (it is in their ad somewhere).

Some things to remember:

1) AUTO setting is not the most efficient. Bypass it by either setting to the coldest setting, or going to manual, and go for the highest fan setting. Car A?C is most effective at the highest fan speeds. It was near 100 today here, and setting the A/C to 72 rather than 70 resulted in quite different performance. Remember that AUTO goes for the quietest and almost fastest, and also not to "shock" the occupants. That is why manual setting usually get the job done faster, than switch to AUTO for sustenance.

2) I have gauges to check the charge, and found my TL's R-134a charge to be on the low side of normal, so i added a bit more. I noticed a slight improvement of the coldest setting, measured with a digital thermometer measured in the center vent at highest fan speed.

3) No Freon - just R-134a. In the first 12 months, there should be no charge for the "charge". If you whine or plead a bit, they may well give a freebie beyond that point

 

Keep in mind that the type of driving that you do affects how well the system works. Stop and go slow traffic means slow response from the system. Highway driving gets you more cool air. It has been over 100 here everyday for at least 2 weeks. If I get on the highway A/C is fine, city streets and it's marginal. R-134a does not work as well as freon did but that's all we get now.

 

7 months in .... i am sure the dealer would check it out and fix it for free. ask them for a cool loaner and rental while they sort it out.

 

There's a difference between an Air Conditioner NOT working and NOT performING as well as others. I think Acura's AC systems were and are weak. They've always been weaker then other manufacturers. Ford's and Toyota's have amazing AC units. I freeze in their cars.

 

Well, the old Honda add-in units were sub-par, no doubt. But I am not prepared to agree with ya about all the Honda units today, and specifically the TL.

I think they function differently, and can be deceiving, as I alluded to in my post. My sister's G35 air seems to be a lot better than the TL, but it goes to full A/C at startup whatever the AUTO setting seems to be. I borrowed her car for a while, and thought at first, "this A/C rocks", but when I applied the same techniques I use in the TL, it levelled out a lot.

I guess the scientist in me will not rest - but I measured the outlet temperature of a number of cars in my "stable" with a digi-thermometer accurate to .1degF: A Subaru, the TL, the S2000, the Ford Cobra, and a GMC Denali. And with my tweaking of the settings to get true "full on", the temperature as measured at the center outlet varied only a few degrees in all of them. Fan output was similar. I even checked the compressors, and guess what? - most were N-D's anyway, with similar output!

The apparent "coolness and capacity" of non AUTO Climate cars can often seem better, because the system does not mix air, nor modulate fan speeds as smoothly. They seem to be either on or off; binary. This is especially true for Ford's "A/C Brothers", you know, Max and Norm . I was in a Windstar that made my eyes freeze open - but then i realized the owner had the fan on high, the recirc on, and the setting to Max - it got uncomfortably cold.

Also, the size, angle of solar entry, and tint of the windows can make a difference, as well as the programming of the AUTO settings - some go for a smooth, silent cool down, some go for max cooling, some incorporate fuel economy into the mix.

I think that if we were all to maximize output (recirc on, fan set to highest, temp set to lowest) that the systems would not be as dramatically different as you think.

 

very true...hope you didn`t pay a lot, because all you had to do is switch over to heat and let it run a bit... instant defrost...

 

100 degrees here yesterday and I actually started getting too cold in the car...Ebony interior also. It helps a lot if you keep the sunroof shade closed and make sure that the dual mode is not on; for example, if driver is set to "Lo" and passenger is set to 60, it will start blowing warm air from the passenger side in anticipation that it needs to keep that side warmer. Give it a shot.....I'll bet you notice a huge improvement.

 

I noticed my AC was barely cooling the car in heavy traffic (engine speed: idle) but improved once the traffic cleared and I got the revs up.

 

Probably because the engine started to run cooler once you got back upto speed. The cooler the car runs, the better the AC performs.

 

Huh? I assume you are not referring to coolant temps, right? Although modulated by the thermostat and the fan at idle or low speed, engine coolant temps have little effect on A/C performance.

It is far more likely the simple fact that there is greater airflow across the condenser when the car is moving at speed. Actually, since the condenser heat exchange into the air slightly heats the air going into the radiator at any speed, running the air will always increase underhood air temps, even a bit at highway speeds.