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Hatchbacks Mazda3 Mazda3 Climate Control Questions
155 messages, Last post on Sep 24, 2009 at 7:30 AM
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Replying to: dc_driver (Jul 11, 2006 12:32 pm) Some say their's is on for 15 seconds and off for 30+ Contributing factors could be overfill/underfill of refrig. or just a computer issue. Mine is on for 15 seconds and off for 5 or less and it works great. Normal fresh air vent temp is 8-12 degrees higher than outside temp. Insulation problem, perhaps? Hot/Cold air door not tracking correctly? Maybe stays open a bit and allows hot air to mix with cold air? Maybe the door is not well insulated or not insulated at all? Perhaps the black dash absorbs so much heat under direct sunlight that the entire dash area from door to door, from floor to windshield, and from fire wall to steering wheel retains and radiates the heat no matter how long the a/c air is on for or how cold the a/c unit emits? And what about the air ducts, are they well insulated or insulated at all from the rest of the dash? BTW - I don't have my window's tinted, but I do have and use the Mazda 3 sunshield for the front - makes a hell of a difference.
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Replying to: dc_driver (Jul 11, 2006 12:32 pm) If you use the recirc to try and cool the car all you are doing is circulating the hot air in the car which will really mean you are taking a longer time to cool the interior. Of course with the windows down the air coming through the windows circulating in the interior will help cool the interior. So my theory to cool the car quicker use outside are mode first than switch to recirc. Hope this helps... |
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Replying to: chacobleu (Jul 12, 2006 6:45 am) You are the first I have heard that has the compressor cycle 15secs. on and off 5 sec. and back on again. As for a sunshield, ya they work great when parked but is no use when it sits in your trunk or back seat and driving into the sun with the hot rays bouncing off the dash and hitting ones face and body. But a good observation on why most might have issues. If the dash plays a part in the poor A/C Mazda should have known this and built a kick a** A/C to compensate
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| I have noticed that the severe slope of the windshield and the large dash board cause what I consider a super heating effect of the dash. The dash super heats (mine's black)and works like a radiator and it takes a bit of time to cool the cabin off because of this. I live in southern California and it can get pretty hot but we have very little humidity so I don't know if that's a factor or not, perhaps I just got lucky with a good A/C. Just my 2 cents! | |
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Replying to: nifty56 (Jul 12, 2006 6:03 pm) tweaking a few things could improve things. sure a larger capacity a/c could improve things, but do u really want a radiating dash while sitting in commutter traffic under direct sunlight and 90+ temp and humidity? my previous vehicle had a silver tone dash; lighter color dashes to pose more relection in the windshield, but not enought to be nuisance when looking out. btw - coldest temp out from those middle vents was 31 degrees. home a/c duct runs through many attics, but they are/should be well insulated so that once the a/c air is able to reach it's coldest, the duck itself is cold and stays cold thanks to the insulation. If the ducts carrying the air are exposed (not insulated at all) to direct heat from a deeply radiating dash, what a waste of energy. |
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I was posting here for a while a few months ago and just thought I'd chime back in to say that I've had absolutely no problems whatsoever with the level of performance of my A/C in my '06 GT Sedan. I'll qualify this by saying that I live in South Carolina where we've routinely had mid-90's and high humidity this summer. I commute about 10 minutes to and from work and it always cools off pretty quickly in the afternoon going home. I do keep a Mazda sun-shade the dealership gave me in the front window to keep the dash and steering wheel from getting too hot. The car typically bakes in the sun all day and is usually quite hot. I vent the heat by opening the window and sunroof for about a minute. The auto-climate control will run full blast on recirculate for probably 4 minutes and by the time I'm home it's running on Level 2-3 and the car is comfortable. I'd say within 4-5 minutes the car is comfortable. |
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I had convinced myself that the AC in my Mazda3 was working better than it did last summer. Then my wife buys a new car - it blows ICE CUBES out of the vents - you must turn it down (or is it up?) after driving only a block - even on a 97 degree - high humidity day (like yesterday in Houston) - it will just plain freeze you. Then I jump in the Mazda3 and its like - why doesn't this thing cool better? I added a little R-134a to my old truck - it only took part of a can of refrigerant - so I though what the heck - lets hook up to the Mazda3 and see what we can see. I drove the Mazda3 around the block a few times to get the AC working -per the gauge the refrigerant level was good - low side right at 45 PSI - my vent temp was running between 55 and 59 degrees - recirc on - fan speed 4. So I add a little R-134a - vent temp drops to 52-56 - I wait a few minutes - vent temp still 52-56 - so I add a little more - vent temp drops again to 50-53 - add more 48-52 - add more still 48-52 add a little more 50-54. So I bled a little gas out of the low side - as I did the vent temp started dropping - after a few tries I got the vent temp down to 48-52 again - so I figured I must be at the exact sweet spot. Just a few of the fine points & things that seem strange. The reading on my gauge started at 45 PSI and even though I added R-134a several times - and then took gas out several times - the reading stayed right at 45 PSI. Its not a very fancy gauge - but when I added refrigerant to my truck the PSI went from under 40 up to about 50 PSI. So I think the gauge does work. I have no explaination why the PSI reading on the Mazda3 did not change. Its hard to quantify how much R-134a I added (or took out) each time I adjusted. I started with a new 12 ounce can (on my truck) I guess it was a little over 1/2 gone when I hooked up to the Mazda3. Think I added less than 1/2 of an ounce each time - just a few seconds with the valve open. In total I added 2 ounces - then took out maybe 1/2 an ounce. So the net amount I added was very small. Could be why the PSI reading did not change! It is strange that such a small adjustment can make this much difference. Although 48 - 52 is not great - (my 7 year old truck was kicking out mass quantities of 42 degree air) - the few degrees improvement from the 55-59 starting point is very significant. I am not recommending making these or any adjustments to your AC system - its dangerous - it could damage your car & even kill you - it could possible void the warranty on your AC system - which IMO means little or nothing since Mazda has not exactly honored it so far anyway.
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Replying to: z71bill (Jul 17, 2006 10:03 am) I tried a Camry 2007 V6 and the A/C was not very good, at idle with the car sun soaked it never really got cold..I thought I am still in my Mazda, waited and waited to see how long it would take to cool, gave up, after some average speed the A/C started to cool down the car, not impressed. noisey fan also. Also tried the Hyundai Sonata, V6 same day, car was sun soak, moonroof open, the A/C was cold right from the start up. No waiting, no need to lower the windows and open the door etc, start and go..After a few minutes turned the fan to almost 1. Fan was very quiet even at max.speed. outside temp 30C+
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Replying to: nifty56 (Jul 17, 2006 12:40 pm)
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After an extensive search she decided on the Acura TL - the IS 250 was my first choice - but I could never find a car (250 or 350) that was close to what we wanted (option wise) plus most had black interiors - even though the AC seemed to work well we just did not want that color. We did test the Camry - something I said I would never buy - but the 2007 SE looks good - the AC in the Camry was not great - it took a while to cool off - but eventually did - if we had not just experienced the AC system from hell (thanks Mazda) maybe we would have not been so sensitive.
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