Weak cooling from A/C?

It has been in the mid-90s around here, and I was disappointed to see how long it takes for the A/C to make the car comfortable. The coldest air that I have seen from the vents has been around 50 degrees with a 95 degree ambient. Almost every car I have had before has been able to manage 38-40 degree air in the same situation.

 

My co-worker is complaining of the same thing with his LGT Ltd wagon.

 

Ideas?

 

Steve

Use recirculate

Use recirculate

 

Yeah, I do. The temps I quoted were using recirculate. I hate using it, because using recirculated air is the quickest way to make your car always smell like feet and farts.

 

That is another issue. These cars put out so much heat from the engine compartment, using "vent" in traffic is worthless. The "vent" air was 100 degrees yesterday morning with a 65 degree ambient.

 

Steve

I have an LGT and I live in houston, and find the A/C to be great. But I have my windows tinted darkly and find that makes a big difference. Also if your sitting in traffic the A/C will not be as cool as when your moving. I have driven the outback wagon recently this week as a loaner. I too noticed it does not cool as well as my sedan. I attribute that to extra volume, and more windows to cool with the same system as in the sedan.

 

Try insulating the suction line to the A/C, make sure your interior coils are clean, leave windows open while parked to reduce the heat build up, tint your windows (makes a big difference)

I have a 2.5i, Im not sure if this is how it should be, but if I run the fan ONLY, no AC, warm air comes out of the vents, why is that? is this how it is?

I has had no issue with mine, and I live in Southern California, where it was over 100* last weekend. The A/C blew cold even when not on recirculate and easily kept the cabin cool and confortable. Compared to my fiance Mazda6's A/C system which would have struggled in the same conditions.

My climate is a constant 90 F year round and sunny. I find the hotter and sunnier it gets the harder the AC will have to work and the higher the temps will be in the cabin. Turn on the AC in the dead of night to the same settings during daytime and i'll freeze my ass off, even if it's 80 F at night.

My 04 accord had much colder AC than my LGT. It's ok though, my accord didn't run to 60 in the low 5's

I find the AC in the legacy to be ice cold. No complaints so far

When the warm weather hit Chicago in mid April I was shocked to find out (upon a dealer trip) that the AC compressor harness had not been plugged in by the factory. Might be the same case. Mine didn"t work and after the dealer trip it became ice cold. On hot days a setting of 65 and recirculate on lowest fan speed becomes unbearably cold after 20 min or so . No complaints now./..

AC compressor harnesses are not plugged in at the factory to keep the battery from draining (or so the dealer tells me). As part of the new car prep, the dealer should have plugged the harness in. They forgot to on mine, but it was a quick fix.

 

I think the AC is rather weak, but I don't think there is much you can do besides tint the windows, or insulate the coolant lines.