Car acting wierd when appliciance is on?

[Mr EG]

I dunno when the aircon is on, the car acts wierd, like when I press the clutch the RPM drops instantly sounds like the car gonna turn off. Or sometimes when I turn on the fan, the light gets dimmer?


What's wrong? How to fix?

[PaulsTeg]

Check the battery. A good indication that the battery is on the way out is a 'un-even' idle and lights dimming during low RPMs. If you tap the accel pedal, do the RPMs drop below idle and then recover?

Also try and remove any after-market high current consumers (amplifiers, etc) to if the problem persists.

Paul

[fabian0]

get your battery checked. voltage might be low and needs replacing/recharging.

[beeza]

They check the 'potential charge' of the battery,that is,what it can potentially charge too.So you might hook it up on the charger,next morning it says 100% but that's 100% full out of a potential 50% or 40% etc,so your battery can only charge to 50%,not 100% = Replace battery.

I was having lots a little issues like that for ages,FINIALLY learnt about this,had it checked and changed.

Problems solved.

[Mr EG]

Check the battery. A good indication that the battery is on the way out is a 'un-even' idle and lights dimming during low RPMs. If you tap the accel pedal, do the RPMs drop below idle and then recover?

Also try and remove any after-market high current consumers (amplifiers, etc) to if the problem persists.

Paul


Yeh when I tap the accell in the morning it does do that, when it warms up doesn't do it I think. But when Aircon is on yeh does it.

[PaulsTeg]

When the A/C is active the cooling fan pretty much runs constantly. The fan alone draws approx 10 Amps so if you battery's condition is not the best the alternator will have to take up the slack. This is what causes the RPMs to drop. The ECU then detects the RPMs are below normal idle and attempts to recover.

The problem not happening once the engine was warned up might be because the battery has charged up a little and have the amps to keep the idle constant.

I would suggest to try and charge the battery over night with an external charger. If you have a spare battery available even run the car if that connected in parallel (jump start configuration - ensure you use surge protected leads - an important point often overlooked). Remember if you disconnect the battery the ECU KAM (keep alive memory) may be lost and your ECU will have to 're learn' is the idle calibration and thus generate a rough idle; this will pass after about 10 minutes or so.

Hope this helps.

Paul

[JohnL]

Check the IACV function.