RX8Lover

I just used mine for the first time today after using open windows since I got the car on Tuesday, and I have to say that the air is plenty cold. I am not even settling for a "somewhat" cold temperature. It is truly chilly. It feels just as cold as my previous 98 Eclipse, and that was real cold too.

Either my car has a superior A/C, or some of you people are whining babies.

meat

tell you what... get into a 148 degree car (according to tests of the inside of a car after leaving it in the sun all day), in 110 degree ambient temp and then turn on the A/C. the 8's A/C really isn't as cold as many cars I've driven...

TomsterRX8

Here in Texas it has been over 90 degrees for 33 consecutive days with many over 100 degrees. When its that hot for that long, the ground remains hot, never really cools. There's a huge difference between a one week period where its hot in the North and a 5 week period of heat in the South. Plus, your night time temps are considerably lower than ours. The fact that you've been driving for some time with your windows down proves my point. We couldn't imagine driving without the a/c.

That said, this heat makes having a flawless a/c imperative. My RX8 is perfectly comfortable in 85 degree night time temperatures. It is ofttimes inadequate in 100 degree day time temps. You can feel it cycling and thus have periods of cold air and not-so-cold air. I can honestly say that my daughter's 2002 Protege and my 1995 B4000 pickup both have vastly superior air conditioners than my RX8.

j1mb0x99

man, it must have been near unihabitable in Texas before there was any air-conditioning. I'd be thankful its there at all.

-JiM

pelucidor

RX8Lover - how many cars have you owned to compare the RX-8 AC to? Every car I've owned (even the used Integra I bought with 104k miles on it, or a 12 year old 4Runner I briefly owned) have had colder and more consistent stream of air produced,

But the chilliness of the air is not what most people are upset about. It is the non-stop cycling (cool air, warm air, cool air, warm air etc) no matter the engine speed or AC settings.

I can finally put up with the aircon after spending $400 on the best window tint money can buy to reduce heat reaching the inside of the car, but one shouldn't have to do that. Even a $14k Corolla or Neon has better AC, so it's not too hard or expensive to get it right... I can honestly say it is worse than any other make/model of car I have ever owned (7) or rented (dozens) or driven (several dozen) that offered AC in them.

This is a bug that hopefully will be fixed soon. It doesn't stop me from enjoying my RX-8 now that I have a workaround to keep the temperature lower (Huper Optik ceramic tint). Now I just leave the fan set to '1' and the temp set to 'Coldest-2' once I have evacuated the air from the car at the start of a journey.

Shoe

I'm ok with the AC, what I'm annoyed with is the temperature of the vented air with the AC off.

It doesn't get hot enough around here to demand AC on all the time, but when the ambient temperature outside is 74 degrees, but the air coming through the vents is 85, it really blows. (pun intended.)

In my previous car, I hardly ever used the AC, because turning the temp control to "cool" and turning the fan to "2" usually resulted in a pleasant interior temperature.

Now, I've got warm air coming through the vents, even when the fan is off, and can open the window and get cooler air than what the vents provide.

-ss

javahut

Well, I'm here in Austin, too. I haven't noticed any problems with the AC. It may cycle often, I'm not sure, but it sat all day in the sun on our record August day of 110 degrees, and I got in it and drove home (22 miles) in complete comfort with no problems.

Also, took four of us out for a Sunday drive on a hot day, and specifically asked everyone if they were cool enough. All said it was great, no problems cooling in the back seat in the middle of a hot, sunny day with 4 people in the car.

FYI, I do have tint all the way around.

And, it feels just as cool as my old Mazda Tribute, and my wife's new Nissan Murano.

rx-7~rx-8

the A/C is so cold.. its actually as cold as my jeep grand cherroke

RX8Lover

1) My wife owns a 2000 Hyundai Elantra...the RX8 has a colder AC.

2) My previous car was a 1998 Eclipse GST...The RX8 is about the same -- cold.

3) My previous car before that was 1988 Toyota Celica...the RX8 has a colder AC.

4) My previous car before THAT was a 1983 Chevy Monte Carlo...the RX8 is WAY colder that that.

I have also been in my friend's 2002 Altima, my parents 2000 Accord, by sister's 2003 BMW 325xi, my brother's 2001 Ford Focus, and my other sister's 1995 Saturn. The RX8 is either as cold or colder than all those cars.

Perhaps you would like me to list all the cars I have ever been in? Bottom line, here in NY (where it may not get quite as hot as you fellas in Texas), my car does sit in the sun during the day, and the AC cooled the car right up. And I have no tint on the windows. While I can't say that my 90 degree days are QUITE up to par with your 100 degree days, I think it's accurate to say that, at least for me, the AC is fine.

Sorry to hear that some of you need a freezer on wheels.

1fine8

According to my dealer today Mazda engineering is manufacturing a part for my 8 so I can have a better air conditioner (colder) likes some of the others on the site.

If you sit at the back of the bus and never say a word you will always have to sit at the back and be treated as such. But if you voice your concerns and object to sitting in the back you just might get moved to the front of the bus.

RX8by

The people who have a problem with the A/C all complain about the A/C recycling off and on. If the temp is over 90 there should be no recycling. The expansion valve is blocked causing the compressor to recycle on head pressure. Mine does not recycle at all.

8_wannabe

I wish you condescending a$$wipes would get it through your head that just because you have superior a/c doesn't mean everybody says. This is about the leventeenth thread on this topic and I'm surprise the moderator hasn't shut it down. It seems pretty clearly established from earlier discussions that some of our a/c's cycle warm and cold air and some don't. If you have a car that doesn't have this problem, more power to ya. Just don't call into question the rest of us who say this is a problem.

hey, I've got 2200 miles on my car and no oil light, the oil level has barely dropped. But I'm not calling those with oil lights a bunch of know-nothing whining babies or telling them they're driving wrong or some lame stuff like that. So give us a break about the a/c. I've owned about a dozen cars and never had a gripe about a/c output in any of them until now. The a/c in my 8 is deficient. Yes I will get it fixed; no I haven't done so yet; and no I don't need a bunch of supercilious jerks telling me I don't know warm air from cold.

Hope I'm not being too vague about my feelings on this. The a/c problem doesn't bug me nearly as much as those who think they know my car better than I do. Exactly how much time have you spent in my car?

Racer X-8

AC? I don't remember ordering that option. Is it on the options list?

spdspappy

I just test drove 2 different RX8's here (In San Antonio it was about 95 when we did the test drive) at World Car - New Braunfels. Both cars had the same cycling problems. I put money down on the car to hold it, but told them I want it fixed or I'm not going to buy it. They're going to call Technical Support on Tues and also have their master mechanics look at it. They have 6 of them up there and if anyone is interested in getting one in this area, talk to Jim Gise. He's great and he got me a good deal...

Gord96BRG

To be equally offensive - "I wish some of you whining crybabies would get it through your heads that just because your particular RX-8 has inadequate airconditioning doesn't mean that every RX-8 does".

This does appear to be a problem that isn't generic to the RX-8 system (ie it's not a design inadequacy), but to individual cars and NOT all RX-8s. My RX-8's air conditioning functioned very well on my road trip to California. We had several days of temps around 98F, and the system wasn't cycling warm/cold, and I didn't even have to use the full cold setting on the temp dial or the #4 fan speed.

Too many people are generalizing and condemning the AC system in every RX-8.

Regards,
Gordon

myrx8

I have noticed taht when the car is not moving, say at a light, the a/c does not feel very cold, start moving, the air gets colder. I know some cars have teh feature where the a/c will cut out during hard acceleration. I wonder if this is what some owners are experiencing? What do think?

wvphoto

my ac sucks..
im glad several of you guys have a good one .

mine just isnt cold..
the dealer said it was charged enough .. but not cold enough ..
he agreed,,
asking mazda tuesday.

i might just let them buy the thing back ..

r0tor

iTrader: (1)

I've never experienced mine cycling warm/cold and I've had it on in conditions anywhere from annoyingly humid 78 degree days to extremely humid 95 degree days.

Actually I'm always surprised how fast it cools off, I come into an extremely hot car, start it up, throw the switch and within 10 seconds its blowing cold air... my probe took almost a minute to get cold air.

myrx8

It has been over 100 degrees where i live for the last 2 weeks. The a/c has never really worked great. My wife says it does just fine, but she also drives and SUV.

loco4rx8

It's been really humid and in the 90s around here lately, and the A/C in my car has been merely adequate. I too have noticed that it works much better when the car is moving, not sitting idle. Someone speculated before that the car has to be running at higher rpm's than idle for the A/C to get enough power to produce cold air, and that makes sense to me, based on what I've observed.

I definitely keep it on the recirc setting a lot to keep it feeling comfortable. I can live with it, but sure, I'd like it to work better.

spdspappy

I test drove 2 rx8's today and both of them cycled no matter what rpm the car was running @. They're having their mechanics look at the car I'm buying on Tuesday along w/ contacting tech support to see what they have to say...

Wankeler

I think the AC is plenty cold... when the compressor is on. This car cycles it's compressor alot more than any other car I've owned, but when the compressor is on... it gets damn cold! Go out an buy a cheap thermometer from any auto parts store and check it!

If the compressor Mazda chose for the RX-8 needs to cycle so damned often, then they need to adjust their AC thermostats and compressor clutch timings. I've had American cars where the compressors seemed to pump forever (which blasted steady cold air) and some Imports that cycled perfectly without letting the cabin increase by more than 1-2 degrees.

My AC works fine, I've adjusted it for the conditions at hand (temp **** not set to 100% hot or cold), it's been pretty warm here lately, with highs in the 90's.

If you have a legitimate bum AC... make Mazda fix it!

Serephenia

Hi I've had my RX8 for about a month now and I've been noticing some problems with the AC. It seems to work fine sometimes. However, sometimes it seems like its not cool enough. The air doesn't really feel like its cold. Sometimes it goes back and forth like cold air comes out then the air warms up. I mean my old car which is 10 years old has cooler AC than my brand new RX8. Does anyone else have problems with their RX8's AC. Are your AC systems really cool and its just my RX8? Any response would be greatly appreciated.

1fine8

I have posted my complaints and the buy back request I have made for my a/c problems. Do a search of this site and read the many complaints.

spdspappy

There are a bunch of other previous threads on this subject that have some valuable info. I told the dealer I'm working w/ on my purchase that they need to figure out what's going on w/ the car or I'm not going to buy it. We'll see what they have to say on Tuesday.