Can I simply remove the Air con belt

[beeza]

I only use air con half the year so can I simply just remove the belt for the other half? Will this free up some power? Is it worth it?

[Mr_will]

no it wont free up some power. unless you have the aircon on, it is not drawing any power from the engine.

[bennjamin]

the only advantage in removing it is the weight saving. IE do it right and remove the lot or just leave it there.

[beeza]

Thanks again guys :)

[hondavti25]

how much power do you loose when the air con is on ?

[aimre]

Depends on the age of the car, ie what aircon unit is in there.

When i turn it on, i get a 2-3in.hg higher reading than normal, considering idle is only 20, its a fair bit of fuel being taken up by it

[TheGoodDeal]

Also you need to turn on air con every 2 weeks for about 10 min (even during winter) to prevent seals become dry and leaking.

[omgzilla]

The air conditioning compressor has a built in clutch mechanism. Once the a/c is switched on, the clutch engages the pulley to the a/c compressor and begins to operate. The operation of the a/c compressor creates a load on the belt, which requires more force to drive and in turn taking away from your engine power output.

The a/c compressor pulley is just freewheeling (being spun, without creating a load on the belt) when the a/c is off. So really you're losing (close to) no power by having the a/c all hooked up, but not turned on.

bennjamin mentioned about removing the whole a/c system to save weight - I really wouldn't bother unless its going to be a drag/track car etc as it is quite an involved job (evacuating gas etc, pulling out the a/c compressor, all the lines, condenser, evaporator - the list goes on).

Also, i'm pretty sure it's illegal to let the a/c gas vent/escape to atmosphere as it is an 'ozone depleting' gas - not to mention being under pretty high pressure.

TheGoodDeal brings up a good point. It's good practice to run your air con regularly for those exact reasons.

Hope this helps :)

[beeza]

Forsure.Great info guys!

[destrukshn]

easy to take off.
i did a DIY on it.
check it up.
=)