General How good is Stilo AC

[Andymacselespeed]

As title really, my AC is working, it blows out cold air, it has a new pollen filter, it just seems a bit weak!

The fans cannot seem to manage the air speed that would genuinely cool the car down.

I have run Alfa Romeos for a few years and they have rubbish AC as the vents are tiny and placed in silly places. The Stilo has good sized vents, but doesn't seem to be able to get the car cool. EG, at the weekend, I went out with 2 adults and a baby in the car. The car had been sitting in the sun for the morning, so it was proper hot inside. I drove for a while with all the windows down to cool it down a bit with AC on too. Then wound up the windows at motorway speeds. The AC was set to LO and the fans on full. Only blowing out of face level vents. It was cool, but not cold. On arrival at destination some 45 mins later, it was okay in the car, but not nice and chilly as expected. Outside temp ranged from 24-29 on the gauge. The system was serviced recently with new receiver dryer and re-gas.

Am I expecting too much?

Cheers

Andy

 

[Deckchair5]

Did you use the recycle button?

30 degrees outside temp would be 40 plus degrees inside temp with windows closed so air con has a lot of work to do to pull that down to comfortable figures

 

[Andymacselespeed]

I generally laev it on full auto, but try to use outside air as much as possible as recycled air starts to make the AC smell bad after a while!

I guess full leather doesn't help, but even so! I don't want to arrive at work over summer looking fresh from the shower in a bad way!

 

[Deckchair5]

Something needs cleaning out if it smells bad, that's bacteria

Dragging in new hot and damp air all the time makes everything in the A/C work real hard and produces a lot of condensation which drains out but make the evaporator area very damp. Whereas with recycle switched on the cabin temp simply gets lower and lower and the cabin air comfortably dryer and dryer . When it's cold enough then you can let in new air again

If you find your A/C really struggling with outside temps then it can be better to open windows a fraction to let hot air out the top and have A/C blow cold air in. After all, those poor non A/C drivers around you with their windows wide open aren't that hot and not as hot as you with your windows closed.

Cloudless sky
30 degrees outside- windows wide open = 32 degrees inside
30 degrees outside- windows closed= 45 degrees inside

 

[volxstu]

Its alright i dont even know how the AC works. Or if i even have it lol. I can rewire a whole network of electronics and speakers but cant work the Climate control lol.

 

[john55]

your blower fan has probably failed. Mine did this. Increase the fan speed manually and listen for a change in air speed with each push of the button. You will probably find the speed increases on the lower settings, but above about half way there is no increase in fan speed. On full speed it should be quite loud and push out a lot of air.
Also if you do not fit the pollen filter cover back properly it blows a lot of air out there instead of pushing it through to the vents.

 

[spyshagg]

I fixed my AC and I'm also a bit disappointed. I did measure the temperature out of the blower and it reads 6ºC

But the temperature inside the car only dropped from 31ºc to 27ºc after 15 minutes. From Hot to Hot.

 

[Andymacselespeed]

I reckon its just a weak system. The fans spin up incrememntally to full power, and the pollen cover is secured.