1998 AX - Speed loss at high gear - Air conditioning is on

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Deunan - 13 May 2007 05:24 GMT

Hello everyone..

My wife drives a 1998 AX 1.1L. On the 5th gear, speed around 90km/h
(55mph), the car seems to lose power. As the speed lowers, my wife
would change to the 2nd gear, and the car will have power back again.

Once in a while when I'm driving the car, hill climbing will require
me to either drive with air-conditioning off, or put it into 1st gear!

I know the power loss have something to do with the air-conditioning,
but can someone describe it even more clearly here. Apparently the
problem have become from mere annoyance to troublesome.

I hope some good souls (you guys! ;-) can spell it out so that when I
take it to the repair shop, I won't get conned in the daylight.

Regards

Maulvi

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Adrian - 13 May 2007 08:28 GMT

> My wife drives a 1998 AX 1.1L. On the 5th gear, speed around 90km/h
> (55mph), the car seems to lose power. As the speed lowers, my wife
> would change to the 2nd gear, and the car will have power back again.

55 seems a bit slow for fifth - and why straight to 2nd? What happens in
4th or 3rd?

> Once in a while when I'm driving the car, hill climbing will require
> me to either drive with air-conditioning off, or put it into 1st gear!

<boggle> AX11, with aircon? And it *moves*...?

> I know the power loss have something to do with the air-conditioning,

The compressor takes power to drive it. Quite a bit of power. An AX11
doesn't have a lot of power to spare - the power that IS there can either
be used for forward motion or coolth. Your choice.

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:Jerry: - 13 May 2007 11:53 GMT

> Hello everyone..
>
> My wife drives a 1998 AX 1.1L. On the 5th gear, speed around 90km/h
> (55mph), the car seems to lose power. As the speed lowers, my wife
> would change to the 2nd gear, and the car will have power back
> again.

Hmm, do you really mean that she has to drop 3 gear ratios (5th to
2nd), if so the speed must really be dropping off - something like 35
to 40Km!...

> Once in a while when I'm driving the car, hill climbing will require
> me to either drive with air-conditioning off, or put it into 1st
> gear!

Can't comment as this could be the incline percentage of the hill
rather than anything more serious.

> I know the power loss have something to do with the
> air-conditioning,
[quoted text clipped - 4 lines]
> I
> take it to the repair shop, I won't get conned in the daylight.

As Adrian has said, the air con is using a big pump to compress a gas
into a liquid (to at as a refrigerant), this uses a LOT of power -
which quite frankly any 1.1L engine doesn't have spare - try driving
without using the air con, if the same problems still exist there is a
more fundamental problem but I suspect that it's just a simple case of
expecting to much from a small engine (Citroen should have know
better...).

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Adrian - 13 May 2007 13:58 GMT

:Jerry: (INVALID@INVALID.INVALID) gurgled happily, sounding much like they

were saying :

> I suspect that it's just a simple case of expecting to much from a small
> engine (Citroen should have know better...).

Not just Citroen.

We rented a Toyota in Jamaica a few years ago.

It turned out to be a Corolla-wivva-boot, badged as a Tercel. 1600,
automatic, aircon.

The thing was utterly gutless at the best of times - turning the aircon on
was like lobbing an airbrake out.

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Pete M - 13 May 2007 17:14 GMT

In news:Xns992F8E3F12105adrianachapmanfreeis@204.153.245.131,
Adrian <toomany2cvs@gmail.com> wittered on forthwith;

>> Jerry: (INVALID@INVALID.INVALID) gurgled happily, sounding much like
>> they were saying :
[quoted text clipped - 11 lines]
> The thing was utterly gutless at the best of times - turning the
> aircon on was like lobbing an airbrake out.

I drove a 1.0 Corsa with aircon once. Hit the AC button and lose 5-10 mph at
the same throttle opening. Quality.

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