At the same time, during pre-sale preparation, most used foreign cars ("Audi 100", "VW Passat GT", "Opel Omega"), equipped with air conditioning, when checking the engine, an unacceptable decrease in compression in individual cylinders (about 5.5-7.5 atm.) is detected. At the same time, the mileage of some cars manufactured in 1994, on which at least one of the cylinders had an unacceptable decrease in compression, was 50-70 thousand km. As a rule, this occurred in the last cylinder of the engine, an indirect cause of which was its overheating. This can only be explained by the fact that engines in cars equipped with air conditioning wear out faster due to the fairly high load created by it during operation. Systematic overheating leads to premature wear of the piston rings.
Fans of "automotive coolness" should remember that the most dangerous mode for the engine in hot weather is the "idle" mode. In this mode, the coolant circulates slowly, in addition, the heat exchanger radiator installed under the hood intensively "heats" the engine, taking away its power.
Owners of "Audi" equipped with air conditioning may have an additional problem associated with the need to replace the heat exchanger drive belt every 60 thousand km. This generally simple operation can only be performed with the air conditioning radiator removed, respectively, with subsequent freon refilling, which will increase the cost of the work several times. And not every service will undertake this.
It is certainly good to have an air conditioner, but before ordering it, carefully weigh all the pros and cons.
Material created based on the website Mercedesman.ru