right, when ur ac compressor work hard, ur car will lost power

err, ops
my mistake

but then, if i turn that to the max, my air con panel will "chut sui" one laaa
cannot also

nope, I think you all got it wrong la. I think I now what exactly what you mean. Like this. In old old cars, eg: mitsubishi gallant supertouring 1.6l. or some nissan sunny 160y. You can turn the aircond to max, but then it will make your engine freeze literally. For some weird reason, you can make the aircond cold and yet freeze the engine by adjusting the thermostat. This is normal in old cars. Some come with two thermostats, 1 for AC, 1 for engine temp, yes you can change engine temp but then if you set AC controller to coldest but engine temp medium/ low, you don't get the AC to the coldest. Well its just this sort of thing. If your car is prehistoric where you need to warmup more than 5mins and the radiator does not have that temp stabilizer, then it will have an effect. As for loosing HP over AC, well it used to be alot with old cars, but new cars, its very little and go ahead and turn it to the coldest. In new cars I don't mean a new Kancil as smaller cars are even easier to notice the power drop. I had an old Auto kancil which for some stupid reason the AC would become hot whenever you stall the car in "D" lets say in a traffic jam. If you put to N then its ok But to me its better to have the coldest temperature rather than increasing the fan speed as that requires more power. So overall its not a myth, but then you can hardly notice it. Its not going to transalate into better performance, and its up to you if you want to save fuel open the window or be comfortable. For me the rule is The car IS my slave, not I'm the slave of the car.

Correct me wherever I am wrong.

my thoughts exactly....

but ur slave is drinking u dry on petrol... u feed or slave more if they work harder....

jz keep the traditional style, u treat me good, i treat u good....

err...nolah....it won't affect that much....the air cond turned on with max and without max makes little difference.....most difference in petrol comsumption is when you don't on the aircond at all....

anyway.....i have never turned on my temp settings to max before because my car no need to do so also cold enough already

Old cars have the hot water of the engine flowing into the AC system as a heating system. The compressor is on all the time and the hot water is used to control the temp. If you crank it up, the hot water actually gets cooled by the AC so the engine can get frozen (so to speak).

Also, there is no timing change when you turn it on. The throttle is increased to compensate for extra load sorta lke you tekan a bit more yourself every time the compressor is on during idle

Fuel consumption figures will increase but then how much depends on a few things.

- the car - cos different car have different engine output so it will affect the consumption differently

- the guy who put the gas in - cos if the guy was being a bit cheeky that day and didn't use the meter relying n the windows to check for bubbles then most likely he over pressured your system causing your petrol bill to go up.

Take note though maxed temp and low fan can cause the AC system to ice up. The cooling coil is so cold cos the fan is slow enough for the temp to continue dropping that it becomes a solid block of ice. It will slow and make the air coming out warmer. The only solution is to of the AC but leave the fan at full blast so that the air can melt the ice.

well said.....probably the most comprehensive explanation in this thread.......