Air Conditioner Needs To Be More Robust when Temps are in the 90's/100's
 

My 2018 Fit Sport has a decent/fair amount of cold air, but I would like it to be colder especially when it gets in the 90's & 100's temps.
When the outside temps are in the 90's & 100's, the air conditioning doesn't seem to adequately lower the inside temp of the car. It might lower the inside temp
maybe by 10 degrees or so. Is there any way to get the a/c to be colder when the outside temps are in the 90's or 100's without violating the warranty ?
Thanks for any help!

I think the AC is adequate for the size of the car. Some strategies are:

• Do not use ECON mode if you have it, as this lowers the effectiveness of the HVAC system.
• If possible park in the shade. (To me this really helps in the summer. I actually park in the "far lot" at work as it is tree lined).
• Tint windows.
• Get a windshield visor. (That black dash really gets heat soaked and can take a while to get cooled off, and guess where your vent ducting is...)
• Use recirculate initially, then switch to fresh

I have to agree. The A/C is the only downside to the car. In Tampa Bay, it just plain gets hot when parked, and takes too long to cool down. My friend's equally cheap Scion iA cools in moments.

Still my favorite car ever, though.

Get your windows tinted.

+1 wat mike said.

As stated. The A/C is only adequate. Tint windows. Use sunshade. Be used to leaving it on high in recirc mode. After 15 or so miles you can back it down. It's not horrible. It's adequate. Max out the potential. It's fine.

My 2017 is hot! I thought they fixed some of these issues on the 2018 like a thicker windshield for noise and heat

Defogging is weak too on my 2016 LX.

Be sure cabin filter is inspected and changed regularly.

Turning off ECON mode helps too.

Good points.


FWIW, A/C performance is weak on GDs as well. Some owners get more cooling by REMOVING the cabin filter.

YMMV, so try it. :iough:

If you are talking about some mechanical change?
Well I never totally say no, because I've seen people do just about anything and everything at one time or another to a vehicle.
But I am going to say, almost totally no. I don't think there is any easy trick, and I think any adaptation or change out, would be incredibly difficult.

You can try the obvious things already mentioned. Which pretty much all come down to trying to keep the vehicle cooler to start with.

My operating choice, on really hot days, is to get moving, crack the windows to get the air circulating, and run the AC on the recirculated setting. Rolling the windows up ASAP once I feel I've moved the heated air out, and are dealing with a relatively equalized temperature.

Doing this? While the Fit AC doesn't give me chills, it is IMO adequate.

Wow, I sitting here thinking about maybe plowing snow tomorrow and you guys are discussing AC.

I think the first poster got it backwards on the last step only.

You want to start out in fresh air if the outside temperature is cooler than the inside temp. The helps by exhausting some of the inside heated air to the outside. After the system cools the inside air down inside to equal the outside the air temperature, then switch to recirculate. This allows the AC system to pull in cooler and dryer inside air and cool it and dry it even more.

If the AC is capable of dropping the the air temp 35 degrees and lets say the outside air is 110 degrees and you are on fresh then you would see air coming out of the vents at 75. In the same scenario if the inside air has been previously cooled to 90 and you are in recirculate then the air at the vents would be 55. The same thing happens with humidity. Every time the air passes through the AC system on recirculate a little more moisture is extracted.

This was just an example as recirculate is not complete recirculate. It is only about 80% recirculate and about 20% fresh. The reason for this is they want to keep positive air pressure inside to prevent possible CO from engine exhaust from entering the cabin.

The Fit's AC is weak.
Just brainstorming here-
Our lot at work is black, unshaded asphalt. At times I have two hours to kill so I go out to the car and run the ac.
I thought about rigging some kind of partition behind the front seat in order to reduce the volume of the car interior.
I haven't acted on this idea yet. It is just a thought.
My last car was a Corolla and it didn't have AC issues like the Fit.

You just sit in your car & run the AC for two hours? That's the dumbest thing I've heard today.

Yes, 3 seems to do better than 4.

hahahaha. :rotfl:

Seriously. You can't think of any situation where you might hang out in your car on a hot day?:rolleyes:

I wonder if putting on a car cover or just throwing a blanket over the car would take less time than walking back and forth to the car in the middle of the day. Certainly cheaper than burning the gas just to run the AC.

just get the tint. much easier.