The air conditioning will not tire a modern car, but is it better to close the window?

The heat wave that caused record temperatures in New Zealand this week prompted motorists to turn to air conditioning with enthusiasm.

Cade Wilson, automotive advisor for the Automobile Association, had his air conditioning serviced in early December so his pregnant wife would be comfortable during his summer vacation.

"I do not think I would have survived the summer without that," said Wilson, a 22-year-old mechanic.

When air conditioning was compared to window clogging, Wilson said it was a wasteful effort to save gas because at best it would save a few dollars.

"There are two scenarios. In the city, you drive slowly, your car is not as fuel efficient as it is, but it would be good to have an open window if you want to save money by not using it.

"But at 100 km / h, you can not do the same thing, because the wind that will blow on your car would create the same load, if not worse, than the air conditioning would do.

"In addition to being uncomfortable at 100 km / h with the windows down, the opposite effect is obtained."

Wilson said that the warmer it was, the more stress there was on a vehicle and statistically, there were more breakdowns in the summer.

"Temperature-related breakdowns, not related to air conditioning, but to cooling system failures, are increasing during the Christmas holidays.

"With air conditioning, when you're trying to get some fuel economy, we found that the use of the air conditioning put more load on the engine, which weighed heavily on fuel economy, which was detrimental. a little bit."

However, Wilson said that the air conditioning was there to be used and that the constraint would be less obvious in modern cars.

In the older of his two cars, Wilson turns off the air conditioning by climbing a hill because of the tension.

"That's what we did in older cars, climb a hill and turn off the air conditioning, and then turn it on again as we pass the summit."

The overheating of cars was so common in the summer that one resident of the Brynderwyn Hills had kindly filled large bottles of water for motorists who could not get to the top of the beach to the south from Whangārei, Wilson said.

"You only have to go on a road trip and you find cars on the roadside broken down, cups upside down and a carafe of water next to them. "

But be careful, the engine must be sufficiently cooled before water can be added to a thirsty radiator.

"If it's very hot and water comes out, you have to put it back in the water, but if you get the [radiator] cap at the risk of burning you.

"And if you immediately put cold water, you will crack the engine and do more damage to the interior.

"It's a waiting game but you really have no choice."

Getting air conditioning was usually a specialist job, although it can be as inexpensive as simply ironing for a cost of between $ 100 and $ 200.