So its hot. Really hot. This past week everyday has been over 100 but 10am. So now I'm really glad that I put my remote start alarm in. I leave the windows up and the AC on full blast when I turn off the car. Then about 3 or 4 minutes before I go to my car, I start it up with my remote. By the time I get into it, it's nice and chilly!

But! I am a bit concerned. I'm not sure if that is bad for the Fit or not. I have a GD3 08 manual. I haven't seen any reason to think it may be bad for the Fit. But my last car, a 98 Civic, didn't like having the AC on if I were idling, say at a stop light. It would eventually overheat. Of course, that car had over 150k miles, and my Fit is under 20k. But can anyone think of a reason NOT to do this?

 

Subjecting the engine to extra heat is never a good thing.
Idling in itself can cause carbon buildup.

Why do you wait 3-4 minutes? Does your A/C not start cooling after 1 minute? Are you afraid of sweating?

 

Haha! The heat gets old, after a few months. 3 to 4 minutes is easily the max, its typically around a minute. I don't do it very often, I typically think about it, then forget about it by the time I'm walking to my car. It'll be really nice in the winter, though.

 

Get a tempature gauge! Then you can see if you should be super concerned with heating. I mean 3-4 minutes isn't long at all. I wanted to get engine start also, this being one of the numerous reasons. So it'd be cool if you found out how safe it is to use this with engine start.

I personally think it's safe though as long as your not rocking 10min+. I have a friend with a 2006 TSX with engine start, he does the same thing and hasn't had any problems so far.

 

As long as the engine stays within its operating range, no problem. I once accidentally locked the doors to my Accord with the engine running -- in Saudi Arabia (roughly 110 degrees). 90 minutes later, after a trip home with a friend to pick up a spare set of keys, the temp gauge was right in the middle of its range. The car was nice and cool inside.

 

just wait, one day you will turn your ac on and wonder what that smell is....it's mold. by leaving the condensation from the a/c in your vents + the heat outside will create it. I turn my a/c off, run the normal fan for about a minute and take it out of recirculate.

 

man when I read "extended idling" I thought you meant like an hour or something. My sister borrowed my parents car when she was visiting once and idled for an hour and a half with the A/C blasting, talking to someone. Next day the car starts sounding real bad, and she says, "well! I do that with my new cars and I never have any trouble!"

I got stuck in traffic recently and my temp shot way up. See the post #20 by SpreadHead in this thread about my traffic incident.

I think it's really important to have a temperature gauge if you're going to do this. Probably in a new car it would be fine, but I like to baby my cars, and I personally would not put the extra stress on the car, especially if it were an older car. But then again, I try not to idle my cars anyway.

 

idling cause carbon build up. But if you're worried about the car breaking... then it shouldn't. Just watch for the car's temp sometimes. It's just like driving with AC max out and stopping @ a light idling waiting for the light to turn green

 

Our cars are engineered to withstand considerably more abuse than you are currently subjecting yours to. With my Scangauge I can watch what happens to intake and water temps whilst idling in traffic with the A/C on full blast (which I don't need to do for long it gets COLD) and I see no cause for concern. I do agree with Gimme about running the fan off recirc to clear the condensate out of the system before you shut it off though.

 

Good to hear. I don't usually use the AC, I prefer having the windows down. But when it's been over 105F for three weeks, I prefer not to be sweating by the time I get to work.

I'll hopefully be purchasing a Scangauge II pretty soon, and I'd really like to see everything that is going on in my car. Are there any other types of cheaper/simpler ways to check the actual temperature of the car?

 

I personaly think that the Scangauge is a great piece of equipment for the price. You could wire and plumb a conventional water temp gauge, but the question becomes where do you put it? The SG can, and does, function as several gauges at once and can be mounted in any number of nifty, semi-custom ways, including over the rear-view mirror. PS Amazon.com has free shipping....

 

+1

haha yesssssssssssss i just got one two days ago and mounted it above my rearview mirror, one of the things i keep displayed is the temp gauge. this thing is going to save me on gas too

 

I have Intake Air Temp, Water Temp, MPH, and CHP (for cops! LOL) Crank Horse-power. I sometimes do instant MPG and CHP just to watch them go in different directions when I floor it LOL. One of my favorite things i have added to this car, no doubt.

 

That is certainly the next thing on my list, since I've purchased my sound system and alarm finally. I'll be fitting it into the little pocket below my aftermarket deck, hopefully. Thanks for the tip!