Poor A/C
 

Was sitting in my driveway after driving home from the dealer. Just reading the manual while waiting for the garage floor to dry out after cleaning the garage up a bit. Noticed it getting a little warm, so turned up the A/C. Few minutes and not cold, like my other RX's, so turned up to "full freeze". Still not cold, even tho amb temp was only 64 F. If it were that cool outside with my other RX's, I would have been freezing after just a few minutes.

Took it to the dealer the next morning. Response: "Couldn't duplicate the problem and temp probe indicates 47 F, per spec" Was told I had "jumped the gun" and should give the "intelligent environmental program" a chance. Well it's been a week now and still no good cooling even though daytime highs have dropped from mid-90s to low 80's.

Not disasterous, as the car is still "livable" when driving alone, but you should hear my passengers complain when I take them out for a test spin!

Anyone else taken their cars in for this problem? Did they do anything about it?

Otherwise, this car is the best street driving RX, yet! All the best features of the past refined. Don't care much about the HP issue, but am concerned about the MPG complaints I've been hearing (but that's a different thread).

Relative to A/C operation, I've been puzzled by the cloud of 'frost' that is emitted from my '8's center vents (perhaps ALL vents, but MORE VISIBLE from the center vents). As the A/C cycles into its 'cool-it-down' stage, a cloud of frosty air is blown from the vents. A/C then cycles 'off', and 'cloud' disappears. A/C then cycles 'on', return of the frosty cloud.

For whatever reasons, I've seemed to be aware of this happening only occasionally in the mornings while driving the freeway. Using the FRESH AIR/OUTSIDE mode.

I recall . . from YEARS ago . . my father had an 'under-the-dash' A/C unit added to his Rambler station wagon, and the unit control knobs could be manipulated so that frosty air could be blown from the unit. While riding 'shotgun' during those years, I developed the ability to irritate my father and other passengers by being able to quickly/anytime create a cloud of frosty cold air. I remember this condition (frosty air) as NOT being a 'good thing', because it was difficult to maintain visible frosty air without the A/C unit freezing up . . which meant NO A/C until the unit thawed.

So, I've been pondering if my '8's A/C is actually working . . too well . . so that it is close to that 'freeze-up' position or, perhaps, IS freezing up.

It's a puzzler!

Re: Does RX-8 Have ECONO AIR?
 

What makes you think the '8 has this? And how can we switch between the two modes?

No, it's condensation. The humid outside air is being rapidly cooled by the A/C, and the water vapor is condensing into a small cloud. Perfectly normal, but it will only happen when the humidity is up, which probably explains why you only see it in the morning.

Re: Re: Does RX-8 Have ECONO AIR?
 

The RX-8 certainly has this in some markets. If you look carefully at the red LCD display, you can see several indicators that are unused on US-market cars. The fan speed display has already been discussed in other threads, but if you look closely you can see that there's also an unused ECO indicator alongside the AC indicator (inside the same box, which explains why AC isn't centered in the box).

Whether our AC's are actually operating in economy mode, I cannot say, but it seems that they're certainly capable of doing so with the right control inputs.

Mazda has told me a PCM (power control module) is being developed to correct the a/c problem. Suppose to be out in 3-5 weeks.

do we get the pcm free of charge

I told Mazda to fix my air conditioner of else they can have it back. I assume they will correct all air conditioners of those owners who are dissatisfied and who voice their concerns.

I will still be dissatisfied if Mazda says "specs are only 47 degrees" as posted above. My other vehicles can cool down in the 37-38 degree range.

ok so I finally used my AC today and noticed the cycling mentioned but I am a bit confused, mine seems to blow cool, less cool, cool over and over say every 6 seconds going from one to the other, is this normal? Are the defective ones blowing cool, warm, cool only? If you got the ac amplifier what happens now to the AC?

I just got my dealer 15k mile service survey and was sure to note that the dealer failed to address my complaints (brought into dealer on day 0.5) about a/c cycling. I believe it's just an economy move as all my other RX-7s had so much cooling that, even on hot days, I had to use defroster mode with low fan to limit the amount of cold air entering the cabin.

you might want to bring the TSB in now that it is a recognized problem they may be more willing to fix it.

Well here it is guys...the solution to the a/c problem =)

http://www.finishlineperformance.com...07-002-04.html

Yeah, now I just have to get the dealership to agree to do the work, they have been a pain to get to do anything.

I had same symptoms as already described, cold then barely cool. First time dealer said it cooled to spec. I took it in again on a 90 degree day and told the dealer that the ac sucked for a $30,000 car and I had rented econo box cars at airports that cooled better. I said no way this is "normal" and to not even think about returning the car to me unchanged. I also gave them the tsb even though mine is outside the vin range. Turns out it was over-charged and got too cold which then resulted in frozen evaporator and shut down until evaporator could warm up. Car has been great since they adjusted the charge.

Thanks for the tip STICKMAN. Also a good reminder that not every problem is a design flaw.

I got the new A/C Amplifier installed today (supposedly), and the A/C is not much better, if at all. It was only 82 degrees, sunny, and a little humid when I picked the car up from the dealership. I could still feel the cold - warm - cold - warm cycling, but it might have been a little bit better than it had been. I haven't driven it enough in hot weather yet to know for sure.

What is stumping me.......is I'm wondering if they really did replace the part like they were supposed to? The reason I wonder is because the box is in plain view upon looking up under the driver's side footwell, and there was a little dust on it like it might have been there for a while. It did not look like the screws holding it down had ever had a screwdriver in them to remove them, and the wiring harness clip that holds the harness to the hole in the amplifier housing did not look like anything had been used on it to push in the little tabs to pop it out. I dismounted it to look at the part number on it, and noticed in the TSB that the part number remained the same as the original defective part, which is kind of odd. It did not even have a label with the actual Mazda part number on it. There was Denso sticker on it that had the 540 number on which jives with the end of the Mazda part number. Why would they not have a different part number if the "guts" of the amplifier are different??

Maybe they did replace it, but I just don't trust dealerships to be honest.....especially when it comes to replacing parts like this that may be totally unnoticable to a customer.

I would suggest that if you have this part replaced that you make some descriptive mark of some kind on the part then check it when you get the car back to see if they really did swap the part.

Maybe I'm just being paranoid, but I expected a noticeable difference in the functionality of the A/C, and it just not there.