2007 TL
79,000 miles

I did a search and got the phone book, looks like this car has a variety of noises, but ours has been pretty quiet...until now.

Hard to describe this noise, sounds like something is touching the fan just slightly.

The weird part is that the noise starts when I turn the fan on, but doesn't increase with fan speed, but with engine RPM's. So it's fan related, but not fan-speed related. Weird huh?

I'm hoping that's some sort of a tell, and you guys know what I'm talking about.

 

Uhhhhhhh. Is it coming from the speakers? Is the radio off? Try unplugging the HFL module up top (I think that's where the active noise cancellation mic is located) and see what happens.

 

Thanks for the response. HFL is already disabled, and it doesn't sound like it's coming from the speakers. What would the speakers have to do with the fan being turned on?

 

fan bearing?

 

I think you hit it, if you meant cooling fan bearing.

The noise isn't coming from the fan, it's coming from the cooling fans, I'm just hearing it inside the car. When I turn on the HVAC fan it's activating the cooling fans, and the noise is obvious from under the hood. Now I have to find out what's causing that noise!

 

OK, so apparently the sound is my A/C compressor. For some odd reason, Acura sets the A/C default to on, as if all situations call for air-conditioning...even heat. What this has done, in 79,000 miles, is wear out my compressor, to the tune of $1200.

Screw Acura, and screw that.

 

Most every newer car runs the A/C without asking you for various reasons. It's typically dependent on where you have the airflow set, and should also not be enabled when the ambient is near or below freezing.

I'm not sure how you never noticed the A/C running, I find it to be quite obvious its running when theres a few second delay after starting the car then a kick when the compressor clutch pulls in, pulling the engine speed down a touch as well as the additional noise and vibration.

Anyways, in most cars its on by default when the front defroster is on, even if its set to the floor AND front defrost. At least on my car, I can turn it off by hitting the A/C button so the display says A/C off. That's how I leave it, and it does obey your wishes. Some other makes, such as Chevy or even some other Honda/Acuras, will not let you turn the A/C off with the front defroster. Most GM vehicles won't light up the A/C button to tell you the A/C is on, and you can press it all you want, the A/C mindlessly runs when you have it set to defrost or feet and defrost.

The 3rd gen TL should allow you to turn the A/C off, unlike other cars. Not sure how this makes Acura loose points. Presumably in newer cars it's forced on whenever it MIGHT help to minimize people complaining about silly things.

 

It makes sense to leave it on with the defroster anyway as the main cause for fogging in the cabin is obviously humidity. Running the A/C effectively removes the humidity, thus making the defroster work faster instead of just making your cabin a sauna.

 

While it makes sense to have the A/C default to on with the defroster, it does not make sense you can't manually turn it off on most cars. The A/C will kick off when the evap coil gets near freezing, which tends to mean most of the time in winter the A/C is short cycling on and off barely doing a thing to remove humidity. This short cycling, especially in cold weather, is not great on the compressor. It's unlikely the cabin would get all that hot when its cold outside, especially if you need to defrost a windshield, since thats most likely to happen when you first get into the car and everything is cold. By the time the coolant is warm enough to heat up the cabin, the heat alone is going to be the major factor in eliminating the condensation on the windshield.

On newer GM's they have a snowflake for the A/C on the climate control, and when you set the front defrost, the light on the snowflake stays off, even though the A/C is forced on. If you press the snowflake, the button lights up like normal, and the A/C remains off. Press it again, the light does indeed turn off, but the A/C still remains on. Kinda misleading to people that don't pay attention to how the vehicle behaves.

Again, this is not the issue in the TL. You CAN turn it off. I just think it's silly when a car is more or less lying to you with the A/C indicator. I know a few people that thought a particular car was the best since they had cold air without A/C. Turns out the A/C was on and they just didn't know it.

 

At 16° outside if you turn on the heat, the A/C will come on also. Any way you slice it, that's stupid.

I'm not the primary driver, never have been. I also don't assume that in the middle of Winter that the A/C is on.

As it should be, there are good reasons for this.

Because having the A/C default to "on" in every situation is stupid in my opinion, and so is their idiot display. In this car, A/C ON can be displayed as A/C ON, or no display at all. Stupid. I can only assume that this is because that they don't want the driver to know it's on because seeing AC ON in the middle of Winter might cause questions from people like me who don't want the damn A/C on when it's 16° outside, and might want to know why it is.

The district manager is going to call me today, and he's going to get the third degree for certain. My mother has a craptastic, beat to hell, never maintained Ford Taurus with 150K on the clock...and the original A/C compressor. But my car, which looks like the day it drove off the showroom floor, and has only 80K on the clock needs one, to the tune of $1,200.

It'll be Lexus next time for sure.