C3 Hdi Air Conditioning

[ron8]

My 2003 C3 HDi has manual control for the A/C . the fan is a rotary switch 0-5 and the next control beside this is the red/blue rotary control knob. Above them is the button for the A/C which has a small green LED on it , so that when you push the button for the A/C this illuminates.

My problem is when the A/C button is not pressed ie no A/C requested, the small green LED will still illuminate when i turn the fan control from 0 to 1 and so on. Is this normal because my handbook does not show this.

Next i dont think it is cold enough when the A/C is on ( i can here the fan working when it is ) does this mean i may need gas in it.

[stimulator]

You say that when you rotate the FAN switch the green LED comes on in the A/C switch. My C3 has AUTO CLIMATE so I can only assume certain things here.

 

If you PRESS the A/C button when the LED is ON does it go OUT.

 

To have the A/C running you must have the fan ON so long as it's on 1 the A/C will (should run)

 

So firstly you have to determine if it's actually running. To this open the bonnet and have someone sit in the car with the engine running and the A/C OFF. Listen to the engine sound, and have then turn ON the A/C you should hear a click and the engine note change, also the engine coolant cooling fan will run.

 

So it is possible that your a/c is NOT on which would explain why it's not too cold, or it could be out of or low on refridgerant which needs topping up at an auto aircon set up.

 

OK try all that and come back.

 

A/C works by the compressing of a gas into a liquid which gets HOT, the condenser on the fron of the car co-located with the car radiator cools this, it passes thru a valve where it epxands and beocmes very cold. It passes thru the tubes in the evaporator in the car interior. the incoming air passes over the evaporator tubes where the cold condenses out the humidity in the air and cools it. If the air is too cold you can add heat to it by the use of the heater control.

[ron8]

Thanks for the advice : Firstly the green LED does not go out when pressed when the fan switch is at 1 or above no matter what positon the climate (hot/cold )selector is at. When the fan is running and the LED is ON and i press the A/C button i can hear a change in the engine sound which i persume is the A/C coming on . When i press the A/C button again the engine returns to its normal sound and the A/C fan is off . This only happens when the (hot/cold) selector is on blue fully.

 

Really the LED is confusing on what it actually does, so maybe someone at the dealer maybe able to tell me but they all seem not intrested in queries like this unless the are getting the job to repair it .

 

I do agree that it probably needs gas to top it back up but this LED has e confussed .

[raveydavey]

If you have the air direction set to demist (ie the windscreen) then the air con is ON all the time.

 

I noticed this when I first got my car and assumed it was a fault, but the dealer assured me it was standard to the model, for reasons no-one has been able to explain to me yet...

[stimulator]

On demist your intention is to DEMIST the screen. This is the removal of condensed water vapour. The aircon runs and provides a mass of dehumidified air which you can heat if required. As the air being blown onto the screen is dehumified, or DRY, it absorbs the water vapour that has condemnsed onto the screen and thus clears the screen faster.

 

If the aircon didn't run then the air being blown onto the screen would be WET which would cause even more condensed water or MIST on the screen.

[raveydavey]

On demist your intention is to DEMIST the screen. This is the removal of condensed water vapour. The aircon runs and provides a mass of dehumidified air which you can heat if required. As the air being blown onto the screen is dehumified, or DRY, it absorbs the water vapour that has condemnsed onto the screen and thus clears the screen faster.

 

If the aircon didn't run then the air being blown onto the screen would be WET which would cause even more condensed water or MIST on the screen.

 

You are quite right, but that doesn't alter the fact that my C3 is the only car I've ever owned where the A/C is switched on when set to demist and cannot be turned off.

 

Whilst hitting the screen with "dry" air is good when the screen is fogged up on a winter morning, I can see no reason why on a dry day that you should need the A/C switched on after 5 minutes.

 

Then again the C3 fogs up like no car I've known when it's raining so perhaps it's to combat that?

[Guest roy collingwood]

You are quite right, but that doesn't alter the fact that my C3 is the only car I've ever owned where the A/C is switched on when set to demist and cannot be turned off.

 

Whilst hitting the screen with "dry" air is good when the screen is fogged up on a winter morning, I can see no reason why on a dry day that you should need the A/C switched on after 5 minutes.

 

Then again the C3 fogs up like no car I've known when it's raining so perhaps it's to combat that?

 

my hyundai also has the same feature of a/c on when on demist