Air Con Problems

[ibizarich]

I'm sure you will have all been using your Air Con recentley, so can help.

I have an 03 T350C.

The aircon, although cooler than the cold air, really doesn't seem that cold?

Next, the clicking noise you hear in the engine when it switches on happens again from time to time whilst I drive and also I am getting slightly uneven power (acceleration)delivery, revs drop sharply when off the gas too. As soon as you turn off the air con the engine smoothes out again.

Has anyone encountered these at all?

[steve11]

If you look a couple of posts down this has been discussed recently.

[ibizarich]

Doesn't really cover the issues regarding the engine giving strange performance. Maybe I should just get it booked it.

[stevenleith]

I have. I was testing mine at the weekend:

i was in traffic doing a constant 10mph for a mile or so. Keeping the revs totally constant i turned the aircon on and it felt as if i'd touched the brakes! it literally pulled the car up a touch, switch off, and back to as before with similar acceleration.

I just kinda laughed and thought - typical TVR quirk to be honest. Hopefully nothing more, do have service in 6/8 weeks so will get it looked at then..

[NickT]

Air-con in any car will drain some power, especially when you are using the air-con to the max. I have noticed that the drain the air-con has on the engine does change but it is quite noticeable that it is the air-con that is causing it as you can hear it kicking in and out. Not very technical description but to an extent I know what you are talking about. Since having the air-con re-gassed though this has helped a lot, especially when idling. Maybe the air-con was constantly unsuccessfully trying it's hardest to cool the air when it needed the re-gassing which caused a more noticeable drain on the engine?

Obviously it may be something else like the seals, but it is worth trying to get it re-gassed I think if you believe it not to be working too well.

[targarama]

If you notice on most cars when the switch the aircon on, the generator starts up and the car's ECU increases the tickover revs slightly to compensate. On the TVR the revs do labour more with the aircon on (i.e. I suspect the ECU is not increasing the tickover slightly to compensate).

[ibizarich]

thanks guys, I'll book it in for be re-gassed. I assume this can only be done by the TVR garage? what did you pay to have it done?

[tail slide]

Im my experience aircon is one of the few TVR items that can be handled perfectly well by a local non-TVR specialist, as re-gassing and even checking for leaks is v. similar in every car...perhaps stay & keep an eye on it! Search for auto-air con in Y.Pages

[ibizarich]

Took my car into the TVR dealer yesterday. Initially they said they couldn't find a fault. I told them to take it out for 10 minutes with the air con on. They phoned me back and said "yep there's a problem". I think they said it's the compressor that's faulty.
Whatever it's doing it's constantly clicks after 10 mins.. and I mean "clickclickclickclick" and saps power from the engine (almost like a misfire). I put my foot down to accelerate out of a junction at the garage yesterday (not noticing they left the aircon on)... and nothing happened.. for about a second, then the power came in..

Anyway, the upshot is they are going to send a request into the warranty company to see what their repsonse is. It's an aftermarket warranty that came with the car, arrnaged through the dealer when I bought it. Concerns me that they said "we'll see what their response is....".

Does anyone think that this is unlikely to be covered by an aftermarket warranty? It hasn't worked since I bought the car a few months ago.