I'm planning on taking a road trip tomorrow and it gets pretty hot on the road. So more then likely I'm going to have my a/c on practically the whole way there. But someone told me to turn it off every now and then because its bad for the engine. Is that true?

 

No. You'll be fine with it running, your gas mileage will just be lower.

 

You should be fine. Just watch the engine temp.

 

Cool. Thanks for the quick replies.

 

I leave my CL on auto 24/7... The ac is on constantly in the summer... I usually don't drive with the window open that often either (maybe just to cool the car off when I first get in it).

I'm sure there's a MTBF (mean time before failure) hour rating for a/c compressors, and the more you use it the closer you'll get to failure, but on my last car the compressor lasted for 120K miles or so (and it was a ford )...

 

a/c is my life.

 

my a/c is on all the time. i auto start my car a minute or 2 with the a/c running to cool off the car b4 i get in. black on black is like an oven in the summer.

 

In my 01- the ac gets turned on auto before the nav screen can load- and stays on till I get back home- except of course- turn it off before engine shutdown- thats better for the starter and battery not to pull the extra load

On the freeway on cruise- these cars are very aero and do better with the windows up and the moonroof closed- not to mention saving your hearing from wind and enjoying the Bose

A can of seafoam in the tank will make a good cleaning of the injectors and better economy

Not using the ac in winter is the real killer of seals- run it to defrost- use it at least 10 minutes once a month even if you dont like it

I can run from sea level in the central valley when its 100+ and go to Reno where its 95 thru a 7000 pass where it 70- with th ac on, and the temp stays right at 1 nick below medium- right where its supposed to- fans operating as needed

 

Fine, I've done straight 18+ road trips with AC blasting.

 

No problem. I think the mythbusters did something about mileage and A/C and they found no difference between using A/C or keeping your windows open, so go for A/C.

 

whoa cool avatar man, is that 158 mph I see on the TSX? i never realized the TSX can get that fast.

 

i think its fake

 

I have family in arizona and my uncle has a couple of old ass jeeps with well over 200k and the ac's are on all the time. The engines work great.

 

hehe the TSX is in diagnostic mode and doing a gauge sweep. It was parked when I took the photo

 

thanks goodness, I was getting scared, because it's too hot to not have the A/C on here even in December/January, but even if it did mess up the engine I'm still not sacrificing A/C for anything, I'd say it's worth it because I'd be sweating like crazy, and I do atleast 6hrs a day driving.

 

My last car (96' pathfinder) overheated a few times. Always when the a/c was on. So I think they might be related. But then again, you need a/c year round here.

My new car. I'm still running the a/c 24/7.....I hope it is more reliable. I <3 a/c.

 

Not to hijack, but soemone told me it's not good to leave the A/C on the "on" position when you turn the engine off. Why??

 

As some one already mentioned:

 

I always thought that it didn't have to pull the extra load, because before you start your car it turns off automatically, regardless, before you crank the starter. Ya know, right before you turn your car on, there's that "silence" then everything comes back to life.

 

Might that be a difference between the 2G and 3G TLs?

My 3G doesn't start its A/C until after the engine is on; then the A/C ramps up. I really like that feature, compared to the Lexus L400 and E300 a former partner of mine had-- on those, the A/C just started blasting loudly at full speed as soon as the key was turned.

And yes, the A/C can be left on auto 24/7. The only time to shut off the A/C is when 1) if you don't want it because weather doesn't merit A/C (i.e. nice breeze and low 70s), or 2) the car is overheating.