I recently joined the ranks with the purchase of a 2006 GT and have to say that this is the tightest, most enjoyable car that I have owned since my '89 525i (lost the intake valve on #6 and would have cost more to fix than it was worth...I learned my lesson).
Anyway, my only complaint was the gas mileage...consistently 17 mpg with mixed city/highway driving. I had resigned myself to the fact that my enjoyment was going to come at the cost of additional fill-ups until I started it with the remote a few days ago and was close enough to hear the familiar click of the AC compressor engaging.
Now, I am fairly certain that the AC engages in defrost mode, but I never leave the climate control parked there for that very reason. I suspected that it might be an automatic feature of the remote start in cold weather, so I did some testing and found that it also engages during normal keyed ignition and operation.
The findings were that the AC compressor engages at all climate control settings except for the upper vent and mixed upper/lower vent settings. At no time, BTW, does the AC indicator light on the AC button illuminate. So, I have been driving for the last couple of days with the upper vents selected and I am magically getting 20mpg via the average that the car has calculated. Needless to say, I am a much happier camper and I guess the obvious question would be 'why?' Is this a common problem?
Searches have yielded no mentions of this issue.
Originally Posted by volvo92906
