air conditioning, should i use it?

[tc_villain]

I never use the A/C in my pickup during the summer. My question is, should I run it on occasion to circulate things? Will it make any difference in the longevity of the system contents, or am I thinking way to hard about this? The pickups a 98 Ford if that matters.

 

[AmericanOutlaw]

I run mine all year to keep the seals lubed.

 

[rocketron]

Most systems will turn on the a/c pump when the defrost is on. If not it is a good idea to run every once and awhile to keep seals lubed.

 

[UintaVentureBoys]

SEAL LUBE man!!! You gotta run it for a few mins every few months (unless ofcourse you run the defroster in the summer) or the seals will begin to weather and rot. I found this out the hard way with my '89 gmc I had when I was younger and I ended up having to replace over 90%of the system... spendy and tedious.. heck of alot easier to flip the switch once in awhile.

 

[Himark]

Use it..

No advantage to not using it. As matter of fact Mythbusters did a segment on this and found the additional drag of windows down hurt mileage more than the drag of the compressor.

 

[Abominable]

A guy brings his sled in to the local garage because it's not running well. The mechanic takes a look at it and says "looks like you blew a seal"..
the guy wipes his face and replies.."No no..that's just frost on my mustache!"

 

[Ollie]

Most modern systems will self run every once in a while to keep everything lubed and going.

But as Himark said, makes more sence to run it than run with windows open.

 

[woodzy]

A guy brings his sled in to the local garage because it's not running well. The mechanic takes a look at it and says "looks like you blew a seal"..
the guy wipes his face and replies.."No no..that's just frost on my mustache!"

LOL!! that's fricken funny Yeti!

 

[milehighassassin]

Why would you not use it? It's summer time

 

[Gainster]

Why would you not use it? It's summer time

It's amazing how many A/C compressors or deleat kits I have installed over the years because people either dont like ac or think it causes a drop in mpg.

Look in the owners manual & most say to use the ac to keep the seals from failing.

 

[zach477]

Mythbusters needs to do that same experiment with a 95 ext cab ranger sporting the 2.3L 5 speed manual. That truck was so slow it couldn’t get out of its own way…… if you had it pinned going down the highway against a light breeze you would be lucky to get 70 mph out of her, throw on the AC and watch the speedo drop to 63. The AC was like a built in governor. The sad part was I would avg 17 mpg a tank w that truck not using the AC. For those days I wasn’t worried about getting anywhere on time and used the AC my gas mileage would drop by 20% min. Sad part is my 08 chevy 6.0 gets the same gas mileage and the engine is over twice the size.

 

[milehighassassin]

It might take 1-2 MPG from me, but it is worth it. Slow down and you can get the same mileage. Not worth it to me. I would rather enjoy some cool air and be comfortable rather than sit there and sweat.