my friend tells me its really bad for your car or the ac motor or something, is this true?
no it doesn't hurt anything its just bad for your wallet,it defeats the purpose of having air conditioning in the car,the whole purpose of having air is to keep from having to roll the windows down,and it also uses more gas when you have the windows down and run the air at the same time,but many people do it,i have a friend that rides his convertible mustang with the top down and the air going full blast all the time,so what ever you do ,your the one paying for it,good luck.
Wont hurt the car but doesn't make a hell of alot of sense to have the a/c on and the windows down. DAH
No it is not bad at all. But why?? Windows open a/c on? would you do that at home? The purpose of air condition is to have your own climate inside your car. If is hot outside just roll the windows and get cool inside your car. To me is just a waste of energy since your engine is using power and fuel to drive the a/c compressor. In some older vehicles you can feel the difference of power and gas mileage right away. But it is your car and your paying for the gas. Have it your way.
No, it's bad to sit in your driveway with the AC on. Windows have no affect on that, except it's really hard to cool off when the cold air is rolling out the windows. AC compressors put a lot of strain on an idling motor. If you are sitting still, you have no air circulating through the radiator to cool the engine. That's probably what your friend is talking about. Traffic stops, drive thrus shouldn't be an issue. It is a good habit to always monitor your temperature guage as well as oil guage when you are operating a vehicle. If you are sitting still with the AC on and the guage starts to go up, shut off the AC and roll down the windows. The temperature will start to drop on the gauge.
If you are going faster than say 50 Mph then you should have your windows shut and your a/c on. If you are going slower then have your windows open and A/C off. Myth busters did a test and doing that will reduce fuel consumption and keep your car cool. Otherwise having both open wont hurt, but will use a little more fuel.
