50-80 extra kilometers per tank! NO mods!

[BeerRunner]

It all started when I thought there was something wrong with my AC cause it would blow really cold if the button was pressed or not.
Turns out that if you have your vents on defrost of foot defrost, the AC is automaticly turned on to remove moisture from the air. Works great when you want it to, but I'd rather the better gas milage and only turn it on when it needs to be.

Simply turn your vents to anything but defrost, and my tests confirm, you'll get over 10% better fuel economy.

Enjoy more fun for less money!

 

[RonMAIDEN]

Hmmm,never heard this with the non-Limited controls and I'd like to see more info to confirm this since this doesn't seem to be consistent with mine.

 

[J.A.]

Yes, even the non-limited's have what is referred to as "Defroster-Linked" A/C. The A/C compressor will run if in defog mode automatically to dry out the air and assist with the defogging, the a/c light will not be on but you will hear the compressor running.

 

[broncosi]

yea i noticed this a while back as well. Curiosity has me wondering, what happens if you turn the a/c on and turn the dial to heat. Is that bad?

Another thing about the defrost is at a certain point of turning the dial up and away from the coldest point, the compressor will shut off. I assume determining that you are not requesting cold enough air that the compressor needs to be on.

 

[LINY4Runner]

I did notice that turning the knob away from the defrost mode will shut the compressor off, but I have been tracking my gas mileage with the "Gas Cubby" app on my iPhone and have not noticed any significant gains in fuel mileage.

 

[techno]

Almost every car on the market today has the AC come on automatically when the vents are set to the windshield. The primary purpose of directing air there is to defog the windshield and the AC does most of that work because conditioned air is extremely dry so it readily absorbs moisture. Adding heat helps, but the AC does most of the work. There is certainly nothing bad about having heat and AC together.
I'm pretty sure the 4Runner owners manual talks about this.

 

[BeerRunner]

I did notice that turning the knob away from the defrost mode will shut the compressor off, but I have been tracking my gas mileage with the "Gas Cubby" app on my iPhone and have not noticed any significant gains in fuel mileage.

I'm shocked by this, my first tank (lead foot included) gave me an extra 30k.
My last tank where I've been driving more like a sane person but still passing people and revving high at times (gotta love standard) gave me 60k more. I think with careful driving and gentle foot I could get to well over 460k before the low fuel light comes on. A few months ago i ran the truck dry and made it to 499k with mostly city driving. last tank i ran to 492k and still had over 8L in there.

 

[LINY4Runner]

it could be that my truck also has much bigger tires and a safari basket to slow it down....i only get 12.8 average MPG