pas

I would like to know if anyone else has this problem.

When you first start the car after it has been sitting overnight, does the AC immediately blow cold or does it take about 1 minute to blow cold.

Mine takes 1 minute to blow cold the dealer tells me this is normal and of course I don't agree.

Rudyrono

My A/C blows cold air immediately after I start. Of course, I live in Antarctica and park my car outside all night. J/K. No, your A/C will not immediately blow cold air until the air has a chance to cycle through the A/C condensor to allow for heat transfer. I actually live in So. Nevada so it takes about 3 hours for my A/C to cool. (actually about 5 minutes-it only seems like 3 hours when it's 110 outside and you're driving in a black car.

pas

Ok two problems you misunderstood my question and your AC knowledge is a little off.

I don't want to know how long it takes for the car to get cool I want to know how long it takes cold air to come out of the vents. Cold air should come out practically right after the car is started if everything is working right.

The air inside the car has to pass over the evaporator where it gives its heat to the cool freon gas inside, the freon then goes through the compressor which causes the freon to heat up and become hot freon gas. Then it goes through the condensor where it condenses (hence the name) into freon liquid, through an expansion valve to turn back into cool gas and start again.

As long as the compressor is running and there is airflow over the condensor (either from a fan or motion of the car) cold air should be blowing. So near as I can tell for some reason it is taking about 1 minute for my compressor to start.

Boughtittwice

Rudy is actually right. It takes a few minutes for the cars to blow cold air, especially when it is really hot. I am around these cars everyday and they all do it, from a C230 to a S550. Hope this helps.

egxpimp

x2.....

SWIFT55

no ac will ever blow cold air immediately.... what car have u driven in the past that gives u instantenious cold air?

jangy

Don't forget that the dash and tubing are huge heat soaks as well. Your condensor may be working, but that doesn't mean cool air should be in the cabin.
You are in Southern Florida in the dead of Summer. If the AC ever cools the car, it is working. That is the old rule.
Why do you think people only spend winters in SoFla?

vader

The entire refrigeration cycle needs to get up to speed before you really feel cold air...a minute is about right. This thing will make ice cubes when the cabin cools down.

pas

Read my posts I never said instantaneous, but 1 minute is way to long. To the couple of people who have responded I appreciate it but unless you have an E55 you really aren't helping to answer the question.

And yes many cars blow cold air right away, and if you need a definition in less than 15 sec.

So if you don't have an E55 so that I can compare apples to apples please don't reply.

jangy

pas, dude. I have an E55, actually, I even had an '05 too. I have also lived in Boca (year round). AND I am a hot body that NEEDS AC. Trust me on this. You are absolutely correct to expect there to be some cool air made somewhere, but it simply may not get to the cabin in that time. My old cars used to take a FEW minutes to even start having cool air come from the vent. There is a lot of heat to be "pulled" AND you have higher humidity that will make the heat transfer more efficient (so that it adds more heat BACK into the system between the compressor and the vent).

Please relax and just trouble shoot this to make sure that your car is performing, but do not have pre-determined expectations on what it needs to do.

SWIFT55

maybe i misunderstood u but 60 seconds for cold air does not indicate a problem especially if u r in a hot environment....my e55 fives out cold air faster if the temp. outside is not very high and a little longer if it is hotter outside and i think it is because of the air trapped in the pipes,vents and cabin.... just my logical thinking...

pas

Hey Jangy and Swift try something for me the next time you get in the car in the morning start it up and switch to the display that shows driving time and mpg and all that. Put your hand in front of one of the vents and see when you get cold air. For me its always right after its been running for 1 minute.

I know what you guys are trying to say about needing time to cool down all the parts, which makes sense, if that were the case the air would cool gradually. On my car the air is warm for 1 minute then gets instantly cold it takes maybe 2 seconds to go from hot to ice cold. Which leads me to believe the compressor isn't kicking in right away.

I'm going to pop the hood tomorrow and see if the compressor is running right away or not, probably should have done that in the first place.

I haven't actually timed many other cars because I haven't noticed it being a problem, I did try it on the '03 ML350 and it took 30 sec to blow cold. I do remember I had a Saab 9000 Turbo way back when and on that car the compressor didn't start right away to give the engine a chance to settle in to a stable idle I guess, it mentioned it right in the manual. I will measure my Armada and some freinds cars and see what they do. I did work as a lot boy for years during the summers so I have gotten into plenty of hot cars over the years (probably 1000's) and the new ones at least blew cold right away.

What i'm trying to figure out is if my car is the only one that has this delay or if they all do it. E55's that is.

dragonAMG

A/C blowing cold air... definitely not my car. I'm with you Rudy. LOL.

jangy

Two points I'd like to make.
First, even if you have the AC off, the compressor strats when you crank the car. Try turning the AC off and having just the fan blowing. Turn off the car. Restart the car. You will not that after that minute or so delay, cool air blows through the vents and then it goes back off. Dunno what that has to do with anything, but just keep it in mind.
Next, the AC on a Benz, especially a V8 is VERY strong. Also, like I already said, humid weather makes the exchange faster. Add these two together, and the gradual reduction in heat that you expected all of a sudden becomes a threshold that the system hits before it SUDDENLY blasts cool air out.
You check to see when the compressor actually kicks in and I will check my car the next time I get in it (probably Friday). Deal?

p.s. I voted for under a minute, because I live in San Diego and mine does come on in waaaay less than a minute.

egxpimp

he is reffering to me :

Pas, I'm pretty sure CB has not innovated anything new in the AC department, and i believe your car is equipped with R-13A freon which is by far less efficient then R-12, of which my vechile has with a well maintained AC system. Therefore i'm telling you even with my R-12 freon it takes a few seconds in hot weather. Our new cars with R-13 take a few seconds(30 seconds or so) in order to get cold air blowing.

O n the other hand i do not see why you are blowing smoke, but by your post i can see you dont know much about cars mechanicly Anyways i'm not trying to start a Chrystler Benz war here so i'm out

FlyByNight

I've been ready to take mine in... works great, blows cold 10 seconds after starting... then suddenly... DEAD. Nothing. Not a trickle of air. Not even hot air. Off, Auto, off, On... nothing works. 5 minutes later is suddenly kicks in.

Really weird stuff... it happens so infrequently that I forget to mention each time I'm in for service. The other day is was very hot... I stopped the car, went into the bank... I'd been driving for a half hour, AC was fine. After being off for maybe 10 minutes, I started the car, it immediately blew on high then shut off. I thought it was dead permanently this time. 5, 6, 7 minutes later, nothing. Just when I think that's it, AC dead... it turns on max blowing cold.

Freaky gremlins or bizzare programming... dunno...



Loren

OzE55

Aussie summers are hot. It takes at least a minute for cold air to blow out the vents.
I seem to remember asking my dealer about this and the response was something about not blowing very hot air trapped in the system at start up. Once the air in the system cools (or the condensor or whatever its called) a flap opens and allows the cool air to flow. I suppose that means that the air that comes out at first is only circulated by the fan.

stevebez

It takes time for the A/C to get up to speed and the compressor to build pressure... and the system to flow. The higher your immediate engine revs the quicker the pressure builds and the quicker the A/C can respond. If u leave the car at idle it will take much longer than a minute for the A/C to work ... higher ambients also will delay the the effective time as all the heatsoaked elements in the chain will need to be cooled first.

This is nothing unique to the E55.

sly55

pas, i also had concerns about my aircon. But bearing in mind the car sits in the sun all day at the moment and reaches crazy temps, i just figured that all the piping must be stinking hot and thats why theres a delay in cold air.

1 minute?! try a good 2 or 3 minutes if the car has been parked in the sun for a long time! i sit there with it on full blower, max cool, and it blows hot air for the first minute, then slowly gets cooler... I havent bothered noticing the cold air time when its not been in the sun, coz i dont need the AC as much.

i understand where your concern comes from.. my skyline AC blows icy air much sooner than the merc even after sitting in the sun, but then again i believe i still have the R12 gas or whatever the old one is... Good ol Japanese aircon..

Who makes the MB aircon components?! its prob jap too, lol

Rudyrono

The other day I got in my car and my outside temperature read 125 degrees! It remained over 110 even while driving. (I'll have to get a picture next time) Anyway, I can tell you that it was much longer than 60 seconds before the A/C even felt cool at all. In fact, I have to make sure that right before I turn off my car I turn the A/C fan to the lowest setting because when I start it again after being parked in the sun, I lose several layers of facial skin from the heat blast.

DoctorXylophone

deleted

raymond g-

the poll is pointless but to see who can **** further. in the real world (as well
as functionally) it isn't realistic, as many have already posted. bear in mind
that the onboard diagnostic is done after a 3 min warm up....so as to allow the
system to stabilize. not 10 seconds, not 1 minute....

Rudyrono

Read it and weep. The A/C did not, I repeat, did not blow out cold air immediately upon startup. There's a big surprise.

jangy

Dude, your thermometer is going to melt at those temps.

Rudyrono

That's not even the record. It was 130 when I started it up.