Ac blows hot until moving in my 2013 legacy premium

Has anyone here figured out the problem and solution(s)?. I read once that Suby did this to save on gas mileage. Honestly I'd sacrifice mileage for comfort. Let me know thanks

I have a '13 3.6 and the a/c sucked also. It would take a while to cool off and when it finally cooled off, I would have to keep the fan speed on a medium setting and recirculate the air. My 15 year old Chevy Impala had much better a/c than this car has. What I did was use foam pipe insulation to insulate the rubber a/c hoses under the hood. Then I wrapped the insulation in foil tape to reflect the heat away from the hoses. This seemed to work very well. The car definitely gets much cooler than before I insulated the hoses.

The AC compressor runs off of the serpentine belt, so it is directly related to engine rpm. When you are stopped and idling your rpm will probably at its lowest, so the compressor will not be compressing as much as at higher rpm. You can experiment with this by tapping the gas a little while in park or neutral: keep you rpms at 2k for 30 or 60 seconds and see if your air gets lot colder.

Where are you located? I'm in Phoenix, and on hot days (so like all of them lately) I try to keep my rpms above 2k until it gets comfortable in the cabin.

Subaru definitely screwed the pooch on the A/C.. it definitely sucks at idle even in the 2014 model.

One other problem I still have is under very hard acceleration with the a/c on, it blows warm for a few seconds. Anyone else have this problem?

 

I have a shop near me who specializes in automotive heat, a/c and engine cooling. I paid for an hour labor for him to check the a/c system. He said all is fine and everything is working and there is the correct amount of freon. After this diagnosis is when I insulated the hoses. The general consensus seems to be that the a/c in Subaru's just plain sucks.

I believe the car deliberately cuts the AC under high load (WOT). Which makes sense to me because the AC would be robbing some power from the engine that it could otherwise use to help accelerate.

I was wondering if it was a circulation problem. I was thinking of possibly adding a separate fan under the hood if it would help.

A separate fan would do nothing, it isn't a matter of heatsoak just a matter of cooling capacity of the system. Running at highway speeds keeps more compressed coolant moving and cooling the cabin down. If you are feeling especially froggy you could try to replace the factory cooling fans with higher flowing ones. My guess is it would make no significant difference.

 

And on the same token, engine accessories are designed to give at high rpm for acceleration-sake. That is not a subaru thing, all manufacturers do the same thing, even older belt driven clutch-fans would break-away under hard acceleration.

Aces36 I'm interested in your insulation idea. What did you use? What size? How much did it cost? Did you order it online? How long did it take? Was it difficult?

How noticeable was the difference?

Thanks... and sorry for the barrage of questions.

You can get pipe insulation at any home improvement store probably heat reflective tape as well. Wrap the cold lines coming off the compressor to the firewall.

 

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One other problem I still have is under very hard acceleration with the a/c on, it blows warm for a few seconds. Anyone else have this problem?

 

I have a shop near me who specializes in automotive heat, a/c and engine cooling. I paid for an hour labor for him to check the a/c system. He said all is fine and everything is working and there is the correct amount of freon. After this diagnosis is when I insulated the hoses. The general consensus seems to be that the a/c in Subaru's just plain sucks.

 

the A/C in my 2003 Legacy does not suck...

I've been googling.

Here's a thread about a 2010 outback that is related: http://www.subaruoutback.org/forums/104-gen-4-2010-2014/24808-1-95-five-minute-colder-c-mod.html

the A/C in my 2003 Legacy does not suck...

 

yes yes your penis is so large...

What I did was use foam pipe insulation to insulate the rubber a/c hoses under the hood. Then I wrapped the insulation in foil tape to reflect the heat away from the hoses. This seemed to work very well. The car definitely gets much cooler than before I insulated the hoses.

 

Do you have any pic's that you could share, interested in exactly which hoses you wrapped.

Aces36 I'm interested in your insulation idea. What did you use? What size? How much did it cost? Did you order it online? How long did it take? Was it difficult?

How noticeable was the difference?

Thanks... and sorry for the barrage of questions.

 

Ask away. Answers are free today.

 

I used the foam pipe insulation, I think it was for 1" copper pipe. I got a roll of foil tape that is used for insulating sheet metal duct work. I got everything at my local Home Depot. If I remember it only cost about $25 for the materials. Covering the hoses with the insulation is easy. Covering the insulation with the foil tape is a little of a pain in the butt in some spots. Most of it is easy to cover but there is some tight spots where its not easy to put the foil on. I will take pictures tomorrow of it installed in the car and some pics of the material.

Pics tomorrow of the it installed.

I've been googling.

Here's a thread about a 2010 outback that is related: http://www.subaruoutback.org/forums/104-gen-4-2010-2014/24808-1-95-five-minute-colder-c-mod.html

 

That may have been the thread I got the idea from when I was searching for answers too.

Thankyou!

I just popped my hood and looked, the pipe is completely bare and cold to the touch with the AC on! What gives? The tmic like an inch from it and way too hot to touch so there has to be some loss there.

The downside is that the pipe is under the tmic so I'll have to uninstall it to get to the pipe.

I have also been thinking about doing this. My concerns:

1. any negative affect to the AC system?

2. Fire/heat rating of the insulation

3. I would be willing to pay a few more dollars for an automotive/heat-rated product if anyone has any ideas or links?

 

thanks

I did the wrap in my '03, drove for 185k miles that way with no issues. I think if you live in a super cold climate, or maybe run defrost a lot in the winter?, there is a risk of freezing up.

yes yes your penis is so large...

 

you must be the dimwitted one. the a/c compressor in the 2003 legacy is larger and the system has 6oz more refrigerant as such, works much better...

 

 

the only reason you would comment on my manhood has to be due to your lacking in said area

Compressor size and refrigerant volume aren't going to change cooling performance that drastically, it just means the compressor might not have to run at as high a duty cycle. If you want to actually make a good comparison between the two (which "X doesn't suck" is not, by the way), you're going to need to look at the heat exchangers. You can cool effectively with a lower volume of refrigerant if you get enough performance out of the condenser and evaporator.

 

If you want my semi-educated guess, the condenser on your '03 is probably larger than what's on the 5th-gen, which allows it to perform a little better in high ambient temps with no airflow (idle warm-up), at least until it gets heat-soaked. Putting a fan on the condenser would probably help a bunch if the radiator fans aren't running.

There is also the smaller interior volume of the 03 and probably less concern with fuel efficiency when programming the compressor timing (running the compressor longer and more frequently).

 

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So I hit up Home Depot and bought some insulation. I splurged and spent twice as much, $4.50, to get the nicer looking rubberized stuff so we'll see how it handles the heat. Looking at where it will be it won't be very near any super hot parts, such as exhaust, so I would be more worried that it would melt and/or smell bad. But it that is the case then surely that heat is bleeding into the AC system.

I only intend to wrap any cold parts: between the compressor and the firewall on the warm part of the low pressure side; and between the expansion valve and the firewall if that part is exposed. I figure that could help decrease heat soak at idle or low speeds.

 

And that was a South Park reference, not a serious comment. Posts asserting the superiority of another car don't really contribute to the thread.

Sailed right over my head, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't read it in Cartman's voice