Car in question: Girlfriend's 2003 Neon SE (16v Automatic Tranny)

I was doing a tuneup for her and noticed that the AC compressor comes on , even when only the heat is turned on.
Is this normal? Is the AC compressor supposed to come on with the heat?
I heard something about dehumidifying properties for this but not on the neon.

Im mostly familiar with VW and havent worked on any post-2000 neons.

I searched the forum for answers but found none.

Thank you for any help in advance.

 

Does it do it with the fan turned completely off? I noticed my girlfriend's ford focus was doing this the other day when I was driving it, but then I realized it was because she had her output selector sending the air to the windshield. I realized after a bit of fiddling with it that her car must cycle the a/c clutch so that it's blowing dry air on the windshield, even with the heat on, for defog/defrost.

I don't know if Neons do this too, but try it with the air flowing into the floorboards and the fan turned completely off.

 

yes ..Neons do it.

if the selector is in the 'windshield' (defrost) posistion...or even combo heat/defrost... the A/C compressor will kick on

(it's basically dehumidifying the front windshield so it doesn't fog up)

..plus, some people get confused about the fan switch... don't know how many other cars do this... most just have an AC button...

there is the 'blue' positions, and the 'white' positions. if you switch to the blue speed positions, doesn't matter what position the air directrr is in, the A/C compressors gonna turn on... in the white positions... the A/C compressor will only kick on (automatically) when in the defrost or windshield position

 

Ok, i just got done looking at it again. Yes, if i put the heat all the way on the floor no compressor, but if i turn to windshield at all , the compressor comes on.

Thanks for your help guys.
MaSSive

 

+1, that's exactly what happens, nice write up!

 

I agree w/Pablo