I have aircon in my black car, I know it was not been used by the previous owner and i have used/tested it only in desparation as my body temperature reached danger levels. 10hours french backroads in 30 deg. not funny. It does have some air drying capacity as clearing the screen in a shower works better with the AC, but it only cools marginally. Given the stick the system takes here on the forum this could be normal performance?, or very probably needs service and charging. How oftern do the AC cars need attention in this area? And can they ever pump out cold air or only colder than radiator exhaust air?..
My eng temp climbs on average 4-5 deg when it is on! This is how crappy my cooling system is. So when the car is hot and I am too, the last thing I want to do is pout the AC on and compound the heat problem. Do other AC cars do this to?
Looking forward to my remote stat and hole cutting session.
Properly gassed (& no leaking pipe) aircon works okay. It’s not brilliant, but it’s certainly helpful - you’ll need to keep the windows closed too, though!
The real trouble is “heat soak” on long/hot jorneys. Once the chassis/sills start to act like radiators, there’s not an awful you can do - all part of the fantastic S1 experience
great stuff chaps, thanks. The heat soak. i could write a book on that now. It is amazing how hot it all gets! in fact when i think about it, my exige is a semi air cooled setup. the chassis soaks up heat energy and dissipates it in the hot blast going out the window, reliving the job done at the front at the radiators. I am pretty sure my car runs a couple of degrees hotter with the windows up and blower on full. the inside should be vaned to increase surface area! don’t you just love 'em.
Be glad for that! It’ll be hitting >40 here in no time - 30 is downright arctic!
that is hot my friend. what colour is your car? i feel the temp drop in an instant when in the shade of a forest. i think black might have something to do with this…
You should probably do a search for some of Uldis’ reports on his effort to stop hot air coming into the cabin directly from the engine bay.
In a nutshell, with the windows down the air pressure in the cabin is lower than in the engine bay. Hot air comes into the cabin from the engine bay via various holes in the rear bulkhead and through the chassis side-rails into the dashboard. If you plug this lot, you’ll get a bit improvement.
that is hot my friend. what colour is your car? i feel the temp drop in an instant when in the shade of a forest. i think black might have something to do with this…
Black certainly can’t help matters; I’ve an Arctic Silver S2 here. The air con. in the S2 (completely different system, no doubt) has been fine blowing on full with the windows up but it’s been mild and has only reached 32-35C so far.
I’m convinced there’s something in the design and construction that contributes to heat gathering/retention. After parking in the sun through lunch, I scorched my fingers pretty well last week just touching my radar detector - even my passenger yelped when I handed it to him to stow.
Do you guys notice an increase in engine water temp when the AC is switched on? particuarly on a hot day when it is running hot. Or is it just me again.
Unfortunately, losing the aircon is the ONLY downside of going “Honda”, but as far as I can remember, there was no noticeable (or concern warranting) change in engine temp.
What I do remember though, is sitting in very slow moving traffic for a couple hours in Le Mans a few years ago, & almost passing out with the heat in the cabin, & super unleaded fumes from the exhausts of the 2 Exiges in front of me
Sounds like most summer holidays I’ve had since getting the car - and something I look forward to more and more…remember how Nigel Mansell used to look after every Grand Prix!
Spare a thought for the S1 owners without A/C - and this year we are heading for the deserts on central Spain
my softie suspect mates have bought a brace of s2 exiges this year , all of course with ac. and on our long long backroad trip to lemans as i was literally baked in my s1, the inside of the s2’s even without ac was really ok. i think lotus must have improved the insulation of the cooling pipes and firewall.
the softies of course gloated like pigs as i poured myself of the car at ‘pitstops’ but the s1 with its ankle chopper of a splitter on the front just seems to attract more attention. hoorah!
Got my air-con working by fitting a valve to cut off hot water to heater box and always using recirculation so youre cooling air which is already cooled.
my softie suspect mates have bought a brace of s2 exiges this year , all of course with ac. and on our long long backroad trip to lemans as i was literally baked in my s1, the inside of the s2’s even without ac was really ok. i think lotus must have improved the insulation of the cooling pipes and firewall.
Of course the exhaust is now at the rear (as with Honda) which has gotta help. I bet their boot was hot!
Got my air-con working by fitting a valve to cut off hot water to heater box and always using recirculation so youre cooling air which is already cooled.
if i am understanding this correctly; There is always a flow of hot water around the heating circuit, the hot /cold control on the dash then just redirects the hot circulating water either through the matrix or not?
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