Using A/C.. Does this Harm the Car?? please respond

[solaris=amazing]

I have a 95 ford thunderbird (4.6 V8). And i gotta say the ac work great. I was just wondering if using the ac for long periods of time, say 45 minutes to like an hour an a half hurts the engine. All the cars ive ever had seemed to get a power loss, slight power loss when the ac is on-including the big V8 i got now. Besides eating up gas, does it make the engine work overtime??

PS.. A friend of mine once told me to NOT use the ac for like over 10 mins-cause it makes the engine work overtime and it harms it.

[MagicRat]

Using AC does not harm the engine. It is an extra load, but its only very slight, compared with the load the engine must have to haul around the whole car.
Your highway gas mileage is worse with the windows open than it is using the AC. Save gas, close the windows and turn on the AC.

[solaris=amazing]

Hey thanks a million for the quick reply. I figured it wouldnt do any harm to the engine. LOL, if it did, cars wouldnt have a/c..

[INF3RN0666]

LOL, wow stallion, that's a bad generalisation.

Anyways, put it this way. Your crank pulley is always turning. This turning powers your AC condenser or whatever it's called. Turning on the AC just drains some power from the alternator. In turn, you have less power going into the engine's spark plugs *I BELIEVE*. This is why you notice a small power loss when the AC is on. However, it's not bad to have the AC on since it won't kill the engine. Technically, wether you have the AC on or not, your pulley is still going to be turning at the same speed. Correct me if i'm wrong.

[Reed]

are you kidding me. there are a couple of points to take care of here.

1) its not a condensor it's a compressor the condensor is the thing in front of your radiator.

2) the ac compressor is driven by the crank and it does not drain power from the alternator which brings me to the next point.

3) the spark plugs are powered by a magneto or an electronic ignition system, they are not connected to the alternator at all (well they share a common ground but that is irrelavent to this conversation)

sorry if i sounded like a dick but you should be more careful what you post. do a little research about a topic that you are not sure on if you want to post about it. thanks

[solaris=amazing]

Wow, thanks for all the info guys. I gotta tell ya, i love this car, it's the first car i've owned that has alittle muscle to it. My 4 cars before this were junk boxes with 4 cylinders. So the V8 really is a change for the best(except gas though-damn).

[BeEfCaKe]

Originally Posted by INF3RN0666

LOL, wow stallion, that's a bad generalisation.

Anyways, put it this way. Your crank pulley is always turning. This turning powers your AC condenser or whatever it's called. Turning on the AC just drains some power from the alternator. In turn, you have less power going into the engine's spark plugs *I BELIEVE*. This is why you notice a small power loss when the AC is on. However, it's not bad to have the AC on since it won't kill the engine. Technically, wether you have the AC on or not, your pulley is still going to be turning at the same speed. Correct me if i'm wrong.

Best post I've ever read..

Anyway, Reed did a good job correcting

And the reason for the power loss is because the compressor is driven by the engine itself(by belt), similar reason why superchargers also suck some power.