2010 Mitsubishi Outlander GT: Air Conditioning Blows

@mikevegas06

then it should have a larger A/C compressor to accomodate

"Ok, now let the hate begin...'

More like let the whining and excuse making begin. This car has been a joke so far.

is this vehicle made in Japan? Even if its not I'm sure its designed there. No surprise about the weak AC. Seems to be a relatively common issue for cars from Japan.

My Outback has a weak AC, but I guess it gets the job done. I do miss my US cars with the icebox AC systems (especially GMs)

How much longer will the Edmunds staff be forced to drive this dud? They could have bought a contender, and be informing us about cars that we really want. I mean, not many people buy Mitsubishis or Suzukis, but at least the Kizashi seems like a nice vehicle.

I will continue reading about the failings of the Outlander GT, because we all like to slow down and stare when passing a car crash, don't we?

dont put the directional on auto. try putting it on "face" only and see if that helps. your feet dont need cold air blowing on them; the cold air sinks down to them anyway

My FJ has a lot of room to cool, and it works fast and keeps it very cold.

I have a 2009 Ralliart with the same AC setup. I leave the temp around 75 degrees, the fan speed to auto, and the vent control to face. The car gets cooled down rather quickly, even on 100 degree days.

"dont put the directional on auto. try putting it on "face" only and see if that helps. your feet dont need cold air blowing on them; the cold air sinks down to them anyway"

You shouldn't have to do that. In Auto mode the A/C should use the panel vents. In any event, in full-auto the climate control should configure itself to cool the car as fast as possible.

My BMW E46 isn't quite that bad, but it really looses its cooling power around 92 degrees.

Not all Japanese vehicles have weak A/C, and not all GM vehicles have strong A/C.

The strongest A/C I've experienced recently was in a Nissan Altima- that sucker on "Max AC" will chill the cabin in 5 minutes regardless of heat.

I had an Oldsmobile Intrigue which performed decently. We also had a Blazer which barely ever worked.

Most Ford Vehicles have super strong A/C- even my family's 96 taurus got cold enough to see your breath in the air vents.

Take "Air Conditioning" out of the title of this post and all is revealed. But then again, you guys should have figured that out the first time you long term tested it.

OK, so does this post mean it's working now within specs, but it's just not adequate, or it's still broken?

It's 101 this week in Ft. Worth. My sierra is ice cold inside...brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

JP

97 or so today here in Chicagoland and my GT's AC has been up to the task, including driving around 2PM in the heat of the day. The fan stayed relatively high most of the time but there were no problems cooling it down and keeping it there. And I have the black leather interior.

FYI: If you turn the temp knob all the way down or up it will assume you want maximum cooling/heat and run the fan on full. RTFM for more info. I leave mine set at 72 or thereabouts.

Vents on auto is fine and will mostly do face when cooling. When heating in winter it will do a mix of defrost & feet.

One thing I have noticed is, as with my prior Galant, if you're parked the AC doesn't cool as effectively as when you're driving. I think it's something to do with compressor power/efficiency at higher engine speeds. It isn't wind/incoming air since recirc doesn't change the not-as-strong-in-Park factor.

@1487 - Yes, US-destined Outlanders are built in Japan.

It was 96 today down south and my Honda Accord's A/C had the interior cool within 10 minutes and within 30 minutes my hand held thermometer said it was at the set temperature of 68. I'm very pleased with the performance of both the Accord and the TSX's A/C. Also the Auto temp control on both are very good at maintaining the set temperature summer, winter and any where in between. This is why I don't understand people who manually override their systems to be comfortable.

There's no excuse for a modern car or SUV to have a weak A/C. Heck, if every company that sold car in the US did so much as a week of hot-weather testing in places like the desert or really hot and humid places like down in Florida, we'd never read about weak A/C again.

It would pretty much be a deal-breaker for me, if I read that a car I was interested in had bad A/C, especially after driving my Neon for the last twelve. Its A/C died this summer, and the price I was quoted to fix it is much more than the resale value... well, the resale value if the A/C worked, that is.

But, the twelve years it worked were glorious.

Is it just me or am I getting the feeling that the Outlander is a horrible vehicle? I'm not sure if it does anything good so far.

Of course, on all cars when recirc is on (as in the pic) you're cooling the interior air and not fresh air from the outside. So while it might be in the 90s outside the interior air is probably in the 120-140 range. Cooling 140 degree air to 60 will take longer than cooling 95 degree air. I'm not making excuses; just saying that going with recirc off to start would probably net faster results.

i dont understand why you guys hate mitsubishi....i just bought mine outlander GT and i love it
About Ac i live in Florida,Tampa and no problems with the AC i dont know if it is Ice or Iceberg or smthng else
i know that is more than enough to stay comfortable inside.......and I ALWAYS leave it at auto climate(maybe my mitsu is special :O )
i think you guys are just jealous about the beautiful car mitsubishi made and that car is different from the other around....that is what to be expected in a blog that says Honda and Toyota is the best car around......

"Of course, on all cars when recirc is on (as in the pic) you're cooling the interior air and not fresh air from the outside. So while it might be in the 90s outside the interior air is probably in the 120-140 range. Cooling 140 degree air to 60 will take longer than cooling 95 degree air. I'm not making excuses; just saying that going with recirc off to start would probably net faster results."

Well that's why you get in the car and immediately put all the windows down, then drive for a minute before you close them. This equalizes the inside air temp with the outside, and once you close the windows the interior temp will start to drop below the outside temp. That's why leaving it in recirc then becomes more efficient and cools the car faster.