You Should Not Turn On AC When Starting The Car - Myth or Truth?

Since the air-conditioner system in cars is invented, there has been heated debate around whether it can be turned on when the car is being started. Back to the days when the cars still run on carburettors, it was widely known that all the accessories need to be kept turning off when starting the car to allow the engine to warm up. Nevertheless, the carburettors have been left far behind and given way to fuel injection motors, therefore, it is not necessary to let your engine warm up any longer. Let’s explain this in more details in the following sessions.

The car air conditioner and the car motor are different car parts but they work in a close relationship with each other since they are connected with a belt which helps the engine to provide the power for the air conditioning compressor. Comprising of parts such as the blower fan and the condenser fan, the A/C compressor is the component that consumes the highest amount of energy in the air conditioning system. Therefore, turning on the air conditioner immediately after turning on the motor does add a certain amount of pressure to the motor. This makes the car vibrate a little bit harder; nevertheless, this does not mean that any elements encounter troubles.

If you find these vibrations intolerable, you are advised to put the car in gear, start driving and then turn on the air conditioner to send the vibration to the drivetrain instead. If the vibrations become more serious as the car becomes older, then do not worry. The reason may be the usual damage to the car parts, especially the engine mounting. For your information, worn engine mountings are the cause of noise level issues and vibrations.

If you realize strange sounds from the air conditioner, for example, annoying squealing and harder vibrations, then you should start worrying. The causes of this include a worn belt, worn A/C compressor, worn pulley and worn compressor clutch. You should always make sure that all of these components are in a good condition to avoid devastating effects.

In conclusion, starting the air conditioner immediately after the car is started does put a certain amount of stress on the engine but will not cause any damage to the car engine. If you do so, the car might experience some degree of vibration. If the vibrations become more serious, this is often due to the fact that the car has been driven for several years and the mounting has already suffered from usual wear and tear. However, you need to check several car components if the air conditioner emits unusually annoying noise.

All in all, if you do not like vibrations, you should turn on the air conditioner only after you have started driving. On the other hand, if you cannot resist the suffocated air inside the car and cannot wait to turn the A/C on, you should know that there is no problem in turning it on just after starting the motor.