[Andrew Ferguson]

For those of you, like me, who already have their GTi, should the ECON temperature button always be on? Like all manuals, it's gobbly-****. For those of you who are getting theirs soon, believe me, the wait is worth it, it's MAGNIFICENT!!!!!

 

[thomask1]

The ECON button just turns the aircon compressor off, saves fuel that this would otherwise use. The temp of the cabin is maintained by drawing in air from outside rather than chilling with compressor.

I stick mine on most of the time unless the temp outside is higher than that in the cabin, unfortunately not often enough at the minute!

 

[Mark V]

The feeling on this forum is that it makes very little if any difference to fuel ecconomy, ie: having econ switch on or off.

 

[SuperMario.Dave]

never use Econ except in the morning to heat the car up quicker

 

[Andrew Ferguson]

I must sound really thick here, but are you saying that it serves no real benefit, except perhaps to warm the engine up quicker in the morning, or warm the cabin? Quote: posted by SuperMario.Dave on 19/04/2005 20:14:52

never use Econ except in the morning to heat the car up quicker

 

[thomask1]

I think there might be a different effect here depending on whether you drive a petrol or a diesel. A diesel will warm up quicker with the compressor off, I'm not so sure there'll be any difference in a petrol.

I think 'never use econ except in the morning' is an overkill statement but maybe what supermario.dave is trying to get at is that you should make sure you use you aircon regularly, ie not use econ all the time.

 

[SuperMario.Dave]

I see it the other way round,why use econ if there isn't any cost benefit? I leave the compressor on simly because i can't be bothered to have to think when to turn it off[] except when i get in the car to warm it up quicker seems a worthwhile use of brain power

 

[col.mc]

Quote: posted by SuperMario.Dave on 19/04/2005 20:14:52

never use Econ except in the morning to heat the car up quicker

The car will heat quicker with econ off, as turning it off turns on a fuel pre heater.......or something like that

 

[SuperMario.Dave]

i think its the other way round,you need fewer electrical stuff on to help the engine warm up so turning the compressor off helps

 

[-s12lvo-]

No way, if the compressor is being used the engine is working harder (as it has to turn the belt that drives the compressor) which in turn uses more fuel and warms the car and the engine faster.

 

[kenl]

AC (i.e. non-ECON mode) will use some fuel but maybe not very much.

One reason to turn it off though is that AC (at warm and cold settings) dries the air out. On a long journey this can lead to discomfort by drying out your eyes, mouth and nasal passages [] If you wear contact lenses you'll know how bad that can feel.

This drying effect is great though for keeping the car de-misted on damp days.

Things to note on AC also are:

1. It is disabled automatically below 4C or so.

2. You should run it regularly to keep the seals lubricated.

 

[marvin]

Quote: posted by SuperMario.Dave on 19/04/2005 20:32:38

I see it the other way round,why use econ if there isn't any cost benefit? I leave the compressor on simly because i can't be bothered to have to think when to turn it off[] except when i get in the car to warm it up quicker seems a worthwhile use of brain power

It is strange how confusing a little thing such as 'econ' can be. Why, or why did VAG/BMW and perhaps others adopt this nonsensical approach in the first place. If the button had been labelled 'A/C' or 'Aircon' and was illuminated when the compressor was working, we'd all know exactly where we were.

My last car had such a system with a blue (cold!) illumination in the aircon button which when switched on was unequivocal in its meaning.

With VW et al, we all realise that in order to have the air conditioning ie compressor 'on', the orange light must be out (what nonsense) although perhaps less so in the sense that it is now not so economical.

Despite what others may say on this forum, the use of aircon does affect fuel consumption to some degree as does having all the electrical accessories on as it contributes to drag on the engine thus necessitating more fuel to overcome the drag (you get owt for nowt in this world!). However I don't have my aircon on unnecessarily, unless it is uncomfortable for me temperature-wise or the cabin is damp and misting due to the prevailing weather conditions. However I know that is good practice to run the system regularly to keep it in good condition and to lubricate those seals etc.

 

[radox]

The thing is that VW do not supply a basic air conditioning system. They provide Climatic which is a basic climate control system and Climatronic which is a full-blown 2-zone climate control.

To have a single A/C button would be ok if all it did was control the air conditioning compressor but the ECON button does more than this. If an auxilary heating system is installed it disables that and on all diesel models, it disables the electrical coolant heater. I have also heard that even with ECON turned on, it is clever enough to know to occasionally turn on the compressor in order to keep it servicable.

The Mk 5 golf is full of these technological advancements which I find much more of a help than a burden and they were one of the reasons for me buying one.

Stuart
http://www.stuartdalby.co.uk/vwgolfmk5

 

[Mark V]

Mercedes used to have an 'Econ' button too but a couple of years ago they changed the wording on it to 'A/C OFF', much less confusing.

 

[marvin]

Quote: posted by radox on 20/04/2005 11:56:54

The thing is that VW do not supply a basic air conditioning system. They provide Climatic which is a basic climate control system and Climatronic which is a full-blown 2-zone climate control.

To have a single A/C button would be ok if all it did was control the air conditioning compressor but the ECON button does more than this. If an auxilary heating system is installed it disables that and on all diesel models, it disables the electrical coolant heater. I have also heard that even with ECON turned on, it is clever enough to know to occasionally turn on the compressor in order to keep it servicable.

The Mk 5 golf is full of these technological advancements which I find much more of a help than a burden and they were one of the reasons for me buying one.

Stuart

http://www.radox.freeserve.co.uk/vwgolfmk5.htm

Obviously I'll have to defer to your superior knowledge on this, however, if what you say is true then why does not the owners' manual at least refer to some of these intricacies of operation? I am sure that no where in mine, does it indicate that the aircon should be run on a regular basis to keep the system in good working order.

 

[Mark V]

Marvin, if what radox says is correct there would be no reason to tell you anything in the manual as the car runs the compressor itself now and again.

 

[marvin]

Quote: posted by Mark V on 20/04/2005 16:04:07

Marvin, if what radox says is correct there would be no reason to tell you anything in the manual as the car runs the compressor itself now and again.

Vorsprung durch Tecknik, then! It would have been useful, however, to inform the owner that, unlike aircon in their 'old' cars, VW had now installed a system that maintained itself without intervention from the owner, which I believe is what you or, more correctly, Radox is saying?

 

[Mark V]

Yeah - I think thats what he is saying. And I agree, it would be nice to know.

 

[SuperMario.Dave]

Quote: posted by -s12lvo- on 19/04/2005 22:34:56

No way, if the compressor is being used the engine is working harder (as it has to turn the belt that drives the compressor) which in turn uses more fuel and warms the car and the engine faster.

I don't think it works that way.The glow plug is a mini heater and will warm up quicker without other electrical items taking the power

I think[8)]

 

[radox]

The function of the ECON button is described in the manual, albeit scattered around a bit in the appropriate sections for heating, auxilary heating, etc.

I can't recall if it mentions that the a/c compressor should be occasionally turned on but as Mark V has said, if what I've heard about it doing this automatically is true, there would be no need.

This automatic "looking after" of the a/c isn't mentioned in the manual. This is one of a few "features" of the car which aren't described in the manual. This could be because the authors thought the info was not essential for the typical user or, it could be because such features do not exist and I have been misinformed.

I know the manual is not an easy, cover-to-cover read but I think VW have done a good job at describing every feature of their complex car. To prove my point, there's only a couple of tips in the Tips & Tricks sticky post on this forum which actually aren't mentioned in the manual:
1) my trick about re-wakening the MFD display after it has "timed-out", and
2) someone else's trick about displaying an assortment of info via the climatronic system after a strange key combination.

Finally, for SuperMario.Dave, using ECON to reduce warm-up time in a diesel engined MkV will have the opposite effect. Yes it will reduce engine load but it will also disable the electrical coolant heater which is explicitly there to speed-up engine warm-up time. I've never had a car before which can feed warm air into the cabin within a mile of startup and this is mostly all down to the electrical coolant heater.

Hope that helps everyone. I'm going now for a lie down ;-)
Stuart
http://www.stuartdalby.co.uk/vwgolfmk5