A/C Running in Winter

[Riley McGee]

Hi all:

My 97 Escort wagon A/C runs on most of the settings for ventilation. I expect it to run in the defrost mode but not in the vent and floor setting. About the only setting I don't notice the A/C running is on floor only and on vent only.

The manual says the A/C won't run when the outside temp is under 50 but it runs anyway.

Anyone else have this condition?

This won't help the gas mileage either.

Riley

[mlw35405]

I thought the A/C would run unless it was below 40F. At least thats what my 98 manual says.
I too hate it that the Ford engineers didn't think we had enough sense to know when we wanted the A/C compressor to run and didn't give us a freakin button to push like on the older Escorts or the newer Focuses (Foci?). Sometimes you just want plain old air...

[Davescort97]

l have the same problem. I don't use any of the combination settings or defrost as they all turn on the AC. If I do have to run the defrost I turn it off as soon as I can. Not too great on gas mileage.

[Riley McGee]

MLW:

I think you are right about the 40 degrees. Maybe I should proofread before sending.

[12Ounce]

I wanted to "bump" this subject back up front.

My family has two '97's and we've noticed the ac "never shuts off" ... unless the rotary selector switch is in the "off" position. Without the benefit of having read this string ... I assumed the rotary switch was faulty and bought a new one ... same results!

Surely the design engineers did not mean for this stupid condition to exist. The wiring diagram indicates an on-off switch ... I would expect this function to be offered by the rotary switch.

I think the rotary switch was just manufactured wrongly from the git-go and that alert gang of Ford geeks never noticed ..... and of course they never listen to anyone but themselves.