Why do i lose power in my car when i turn the ac on?

Question

EVerytime i turn on the Ac my cars performance is greatly affected how can i get rid of this issue> i have a 1998 honda civic ex btw

Answer 1

You can't get rid of it. The A/C pulls a lot on an engine, and you have a 4cyl Honda Civic, which means you feel it a lot more. On a V6 or a V8, A/C won't affect performance nearly as much. On a 4cyl. model though, the A/C takes a very noticeable amount of power to run. So its not something you can really fix, its just cause AC takes power away from the engine to run, and you have a 4cyl engine to begin with. Running AC also reduces your gas mileage, since more power is used to run the AC, taking away from power used to get your car moving.

On my 4cyl Honda's, you can really feel the power loss with the A/C on. On the V6 Accord, i don't feel it nearly as much as i do with my 4cyls. And if you have ever turned the A/C on in a V8, you'll know you can barely feel a difference.

Answer 2

The previous answer was correct about AC robbing power. They do gobble up a lot of horsepower from your engine.

However, if you are noticing that it is taking more and more power than it used to, then you might have some kind of a problem creeping up. A couple of things that may cause you to notice a change in the amount of power the AC is taking from your engine, is that your engine itself could be losing power due to the need of a tune-up or a fuel injection problem. Another thing is that the resistance of turning your AC compressor could be increasing due to something like bad bearings.

Answer 3

turn the a/c off and roll your windows down

Answer 4

cause the AC puts an extra load on the engine. plus you'll use more gas. just pull your windows down. but if your travelling more than 55 MPH using your AC is actually more efficient.

Answer 5

the computer controls the idle, so it might be the idle control sensor or the throttle position sensor.