I did a simple search but couldn't not find it so I need some advise.

Do you guys leave your TL AC on all the time or you just turn it off manually every time you turn off your car? I do it on my own Accord but this is my gf's car which her mom usually is the one who drive it so I don't know if I want her to mess with all the buttons all the time.

Would this be bad for the car? I love the car and I drive it a lot so I want to do the best of the car.

Thanks in advance.

 

I always turn off the A/C when I get out of the car. Dealerships used to tell you to do so (back in "the day"). I'm not sure if you have to with Acura's, but it's not a bad thing to do.

 

I leave it on.

 

I just leave it on about 72 auto and let the car deal with it since the HVAC is all managed by the radio/Navi system. Turning it off before you get out probably doesn't help it at all. I think they would tell you that in the old days so the compressor could shut off properly rather than shut off by being "unplugged" when the car is turned off.

 

I always manually turn mine off. For instance, if my air is on and running I will turn the AC off before turning the fan off. IDK why haha

 

Older cars would start to have a moldy smell if you didn't shut off the AC about 3 to 5 minutes before shutting off the car. I'm not sure about the TL. It's always too cold for AC in the mornings here, so I just shut mine off right before I get home. I would like to know if the TL has this problem or not.

 

I leave it on. My dad tells me I should turn it and the radio off before I turn the car off to reduce strain when starting it back up but I don't really think it matters. Neither items start up right away upon the car starting. They're delayed by a few split seconds.

 

I turning it off. This is my procedure of turning off my car.

I put in Neutral
Pull emergency brake and release brake
Turn off A/C
Turn key to OFF
Put in Park
Then I finish turning the key off and then im out.

 

mine is always on auto.

 

I've always had the habit of turning everything off before I turn the car off.

 

I am used to turning it off when i turn off the car.

 

TL's will get this, too. It's common with Honda products.

 

If you are out and about, running errands, going to a restaurant with your lady, etc., it is probably not a bad idea to leave your A/C on that entire time. However, when you are heading home, or parking the car for some time, this is what you should do.

Several miles, or about five minutes, before arriving at your final destination, manually turn off your A/C (make sure that if it was in recirculate mode, turn that off first so you get outside air). Then set your flow to dash (if you have Nav say, "Climate Control dash". Set your fan speed to high. This will go a long way towards drying out your evaporator and therefore eliminating that musty odor you may get otherwise.

As for whether or not you should turn off your A/C to reduce strain at startup, there is no connection here. When you leave your A/C on and then restart your engine, there is a lapse of perhaps two to five seconds before the compressor is engaged (you can clearly hear and feel this). So there is no strain whatsoever when doing this.

When using your A/C, it is best to use the AUTO mode setting, however you do not want to have the vents operating on recirculate too long. That can increase humidity in the cabin and along with this, increase fogging and mildew buildup in the evaporator tray. AUTO is super on trips or times when you will be using the A/C for a bit. If you are doing short trips, better to turn off recirculate as soon as your cabin reaches a comfortable temperature.

 

+1.

 

I turn it off unless I'm just getting out of the car for a few minutes, such as to use the ATM or to put in gas. This doesn't apply just to the AC, either; I turn off the climate control during the winter, too. It's been my habit for over 20 years and I figure that regardless of whether there's actually any benefit to doing this, it does no harm to maintain the habit. I also like to turn off the climate control before pulling the car into the garage at home simply because I prefer not to run the climate control in that cramped space. While I'm pretty prompt about turning off the car, I just figure it's better not to have it sucking in the air while the car is running in a confined space (I have a one-car garage; I assume most of the exhaust escapes out the garage door since I am not one of those idiots who backs in, but I still prefer not to inhale it if I don't have to).

As far as the other comment goes about routines when turning off the car, if I have my cell phone connected to the HFL I try to make it a point to turn off the cell phone's Bluetooth connection before I turn the car off, simply as a precaution (that may or may not be effective) against the bug where the HFL doesn't shut down properly and then the MID flatlines when you get back in. From what I recall, that whole scenario has something to do with the HFL continually searching for a connection, even after the car is off, and as a result it may drain the battery. I had the flatline thing happen twice a few years ago and that's when I started turning off the phone's Bluetooth before turning off the car, and I have not had the problem since (whether this is the reason, I don't know, but turning off the Bluetooth when it's not needed stretches the phone's battery life too).

So my typical routine upon arriving home would be pull into driveway, hit garage-door-opener, pull out cell phone and disable Bluetooth while the door is going up, pull into garage and turn off climate control and radio while doing so, shift to neutral, set handbrake, shift to first, turn off headlights, and turn off car. If for some reason I do not turn off the climate control and radio in the driveway, I'll do it after I set the handbrake.

 

I usually turn my AC off, but that was because someone once told me that it messes up your alternator when you turn on the car and the AC is on already. I dont know if this is even true or if newer cars have this issue, but i got used to turning it off always. lol. As for the radio i dont think that makes a diff.

 

+2

 

I should have mentioned in my prior post that I once had a car where the radio did stay on if you didn't turn it off (and you could also turn on the radio even if the car was off and the key was not in the ignition), so I've long been in the habit of turning the radio off as well even though it's not really necessary. Once you get into that kind of habit it becomes ingrained.

 

It was ingrained as a Pilot from an early age-
first thing on the shut down checklist:
Radios and ALL electrical OFF
Their indivual switches for power will protect them from spikes on startup- if they are off

the less strain you put on the battery at startup -the better for its life and happiness.
Anything turned on pulls power from the battery- the starter takes a bunch of juice!
The alternator then recharges the battery- replaces the stored electricity just used, AND whatever load it has going just to run the car--fuel injection-computors-sensors etc.

The more load- the more power drawn and the harder the alt must work to maintain stable battery voltage
Be nice to your car and it will reward you

 

My shit stays on all the fking time in the summer. Can thank the nonstop 100+ degree days for that.

 

Haha ya my first car had that issue. The radio was a cheap sony that wouldnt turn off either. i got into the habbit of turning off my AC but never really thought about the radio. Im not sure if it has any affect at all, but if it does someone pls let me know. I was actually thinking about this the other day, about leaving the AC on full blast so when i get into my car its a little cooler. I live in MIAMI and its hot as Heck here!!!

 

I leave it in "auto". I've lived in very hot and humid Bossier City, LA and cool and dry North Dakota. Never had a problem with musty odor. As noted previously, the clutch does not engage until after the engine is running. There is no additional drain on the battery or stress on the starter due to leaving the A/C on during engine start/cranking.

 

Pretty much all modern cars kill power to the "accessory" leads when you crank the motor. So if the engineers decided that certain things should lose power during cranking, they attached them to that lead. Anything else (ecu, injectors, etc) are hooked to the ignition lines which do not lose power during crank. This is why in most vehicles the radio will shut off during cranking, it's on the accessory line.

 

only turn AC off if its not hot enough for it. radio is on damn near 24/7... & i dont disengage my blue tooth unless i have someone else in the car with me.

ive never had any electrical or mildew, smelly problems with my TL

 

+3 but I do so more out of habit than anything else.

 

Any car will, no matter how new or expensive. It's because the AC cools the ducts off, and then when the car gets turned off, moisture condenses out of warm air onto the ducts. Eventually mold and bacteria start to grow, and you get a musty smell. If you shut the AC off a minute or so before you reach home, it lets the ducts warm up to ambient temperature while having air blowing through them, which dries the moisture away.

 

Mold usually grows in the evaporator and the little sponge-like filter on the evaporator that many manufacurers use. With the advent of the cabin filters, they are less likely to have bacteria growing for a couple reasons.

As it's already been said, no reason to turn anything off at shutdown. It's all taken care of for you.

With that said, my car pours a considerable amount of water on the ground for such a non humid area. If I remember, on days there actually seems to be a little humidity I'll turn the AC off with the fan on high for the last minute of my drive just in case. But around here, even the water that's left on the evaporator will be gone very quickly after shutdown.

 

i always just turn it off the a/c and radio everytime i turn off the car....works good that way. but it seems to be all personal preference.

 

As a habit, I usually shut everything off before I turn off the car. I don't keep A/C running all the time because it burns more gas and I hate to hear that a/c clutch engaging for no good reason. If I'm running the fan just for fresh air, I usually press the a/c button until I see "A/C off" on the console. The only time I will leave a/c on is when it is really hot outside so I can remote start the car 5 mins before I leave and have a nice cool cabin when I get in.

 

With my TL, I have gotten into the habbit of turning off the AC before I shut down. And like jetblakTL, if its not hot enough to need it, I turn it off. The TL starts up rough in the morning anyway (ULEV) and I just hate to hear that compressor add to the roughness. On my old Blazer, if the switch is on, the clutch is engaged and it adds stress to the starter on startup. The TL's computer controlled HVAC system delays the compressor engagement a few seconds so THAT is not a problem. I also try to turn it off and air out the vents close to home when its really humid outside, but since installing a new Fram cabin filter last week, I haven't had any wet/musty smells.

 

Wow,... who would of thought we could have such a long and drawn out discussion on shutting off your A/C before your car...Ha-Ha

 

i leave it on and never have a problem

 

I always turn mine off. Even if it's 100+. It's habit, and I don't EVER want the A/C to smell.

My wife had a '05 GLI, and her car smelled . That tells me it can happen to any car, and the best bet is to turn it off beforehand.

SB's post #13 is the best way to avoid getting this odor.

 

depends i either leave it on or turn it off... i be back and forth with it

 

There's a feature in our vehicles that retains the a/c fan speed when car is turned off. That way when you start it up its at the same speed as before.

I found this in our owners manual. So I presume its safe to leave it on or off.

 

I have this issue now... Everytime i start my car and turn the ac on, it has emits this moldy smell, but then it goes away after about 30 seconds of driving.

Is there any way to fix this? I just noticed this start happening about a month ago.

and im one of those guys that leaves it on. lesson learned, but now that the damage is done, how can i fix it?

 

 

1. Spray Lysol with the air running into the A/C vents located under the hood, and even into the interior vents.

2. Change out your cabin air filter.

3. Hope this fixes it.

 

Will give that a try this weekend! Thanks for the tip!

 

Why do you put it into neutral before park? Park IS neutral but with the parking pawl engaged.