1. Is the AC supposed to work with the engine off (just the power on)? Mine doesn't, but I just read in another forum that other people use the AC in different cars with the engine off.

2. My AC is like mildly cool at best. The last car I owned the AC was ice cold, but at full blast this Fit's AC just barely keeps me from sweating when I'm in a t-shirt (it's 62 and sunny here in Seattle, I can't IMAGINE what it'll be like when its actually hot!!). Is this normal? For the first week when I started using the AC I assumed it was broken, but the air it's blowing is definitely not hot, but its only slightly cooler than room temperature...

 

The Fit's AC compressor is driven by the engine, so you do need the engine running. Some vehicles, generally hybrid or electric cars, do have electric air conditioner compressors these days, and they can work without the engine running, but you need a pretty decent sized battery for that to work and the Fit's definitely doesn't meet that criteria.

At least on the GE8, the AC is adequate but certainly not exceptional. It can take awhile to cool things down, I think partly because the dash (with all the ductwork etc.) is big and black and underneath the windshield in a prime greenhouse effect location. A sun shade for the windshield is IMHO nearly a necessity for the Fit.

 

Do you have the A/C on, or just the fan? I drove around for a couple days with just the fan going until my passenger turned on the A/C.
Has anybody else noticed the variances in fan speed while driving? The force of air weakens as I slow down. I'm assuming this is normal for cars with good A/C. My 1988 Volvo had terrible A/C and I actually had to cut it off completely if I needed to accelerate quickly.

 

Definitely with AC on. It takes a good 5-15min to properly cool the car. The air feels mildly cool when the car's hot, and feels slightly cold when the car has properly cooled down, but it's never ice cold such that it will cool the car down in a minute the way my AC was in my 92 Camry.

 

I haven't been able to test my a/c yet, and after seeing the snow flakes yesterday, those days seem so distant at this point.

 

The air conditioning works fine.

 

I would say the AC Is fairly weak on the Fit. As described previously, it can it take forever to cool down a hot car and once cooled the AC feels moderately cool. definitely not a a chilly AC. Also as some have reported in other threads, make sure to turn ECO off if you want the AC a bit cooler

 

I stuck a pocket thermometer (calibrated) in one of my dash vents to test the A/C. After about 10 minutes it got down to 46*F. The fan speed was on 1 the ECO was on and it was about 80* outside. I believe it's going to work fine this summer!

 

I bought mine in June of last year and it got me through a Florida summer with no problem. It isn't immediate, but that's mostly thanks to those pesky laws of thermodynamics.