A4 air conditioner not that great?

I've read the same things as you have. Nonetheless, the A/C in my '02 A4 is extremely powerful -- actually the strongest A/C of any car that I've ever owned. So I don't know exactly how to explain the discrepency between what "people" say and what I've experienced (especially since I tend to like my space VERY air conditioned...i.e. cold). If there's any problem that I would point to regarding the A/C in my car it's the mildew smell that it's taken on this summer. But that's an issue with all automotive A/C units, not an A4-specific issue. And it can be taken care of rather easily in any case.

Rob

My 2001 A4's A/C works just fine. It keeps temp at set level. I agree w/ others who said to have recirculate button pushed to keep outside air from having to be cooled. Also keeps out hwy road exhaust. :)

Bruce in L.A.

I believe that Audis have never had very good air conditioning systems. There is generally a lot of glass area to overcome. I have an older Audi and while the air is good, it is not great!

Ron

I think the climate control on my Audi is excellent, and we've had plenty of

/daytripper '00 s4 6spd, nicely chilled

Remove the pollen filter and throw some laundry detergent in the hole and turn on the car. Don't stay there... It will kill the mildew in the ducts. Works fine

Maybe not a valid comparison but - the A/C in my '03 Passat (which I would imagine is highly similar but I can't say for sure) is entirely adequate. Worked fine even during the hottest days this summer.

-- Mike Smith

We drove from the Bay Area to a town near Sacramento yesterday. When we left, the outside air temp was around 78; I noted it got progressively hotter as we drove inland. At our destination, the outside air temp was 93. I remarked to my wife that it was 93 outside; had I not looked at the temp gage, we would not have had a clue. This was in our 00 A4 1.8T.

Ken

in article _UN3b.357$ snipped-for-privacy@newsread1.news.atl.earthlink.net, los at snipped-for-privacy@yo.net wrote on 8/29/03 3:34 PM:

I just made it thru a new york summer and found it to be fine. The automatic feature may take some getting used to - when it's off, the car seems to have poor AC. But when it's on, and you turn start the car after it's been parked in the sun, the unmistakable roar of the climate control is impressive and cools everything off quickly. Note some of the other postings about windscreen condensation problems on humid days. That's 'cause the damn air conditioner works so well!

My one beef is that it tries too hard to maintain the temperature. If I've got it set for 70, and it's 67 outside, there's no reason for the heat to come on, or vice versa with the A/C if it's only a couple of degrees over. There should be a little more "slack" in the temperature setting, IMO.

-- Mike Smith

Imagine some poor hvac engineer at audi reading the above.

"Now they complain because the system does what it says it's going to do...and it's too accurate."

Human perception of temperature is subjective. Your nerve endings don't tell your brain "it's 70 degrees", they say "it's warm" or "it's cold". And I'm not the first one to say it. ISTR reading a C&D editorial a while back that said the same thing.

-- Mike Smith

I agree. My 01 TT does not have very good AC.

The AC in my 2001 A4 1.8 Quattro works great -- the best I've had in any car yet in terms of keeping the entire passenger compartment evenly cooled. And I've been down to hot and humid Florida with no problems, too.