Member
| Radio stays on, but I shut off the A/C. Been doing that as long as I’ve been driving. Guess I’m weird as well, according to some of your standards. 
"If you’re a leader, you lead the way. Not just on the easy ones; you take the tough ones too…” – MAJ Richard D. Winters (1918-2011), E Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne
"Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil... Therefore, as tongues of fire lick up straw and as dry grass sinks down in the flames, so their roots will decay and their flowers blow away like dust; for they have rejected the law of the Lord Almighty and spurned the word of the Holy One of Israel." - Isaiah 5:20,24 |
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| I shut the A/C off in my car before I turn off the engine, because I don't know if I'll need it the next time I'm in the car.
I am careful to shut off the wipers, as having them come on at startup can bat the little parking-ball clear off of it's chain. |
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Little ray
of sunshine
| quote: Originally posted by NavyGuy:
Common wisdom in yesteryear was AC put a large drag on the engine. Might even cost you 2 -5 MPGs. And if you attempted to start the car with the AC on you were dragging the compressor along as the starter spun the engine which was hard on the battery and starter. Today's AC compressors are much more efferent. When they run there's hardly a blip in MPGs and in most vehicles running with the AC on is more fuel efferent than AC off with windows down. At least at highway speeds. So, there is little advantage to starting a modern day car with the AC off.
Radio and other low power accessories also have next to zero affect on starting ability. So no real reason to turn them off other than those of use with OCD that like things in their place.
As far as starting and putting in gear and immediately driving off, again today's cars are different. ECUs control all of that stuff and give higher RPMs at start up. Engines warm up faster under some load rather than just idling. Of course you can go too far with this. If you drive away in a normal fashion, no problem. If you take off squealing tires like you just found out your wife was cheating on you there might be some issues down the line.
That is what I was told. Current computer controls handle all of that. These isn't your dads' '57 Bel Aire.
The fish is mute, expressionless. The fish doesn't think because the fish knows everything. |
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You're going to feel
a little pressure...
| I shut everything down before turning the car off. I figure that the battery has enough strain on it with trying to start the car at 120 degrees air temp, probably 150 degrees under the hood. I used to shut everything down 2 minutes out, to let the alternator put some extra juice in the battery without a load on it but it's just too damned hot, right now! Everyone else is weird. We are the only sane ones  Bruce
"The designer of the gun had clearly not been instructed to beat about the bush. 'Make it evil,' he'd been told. 'Make it totally clear that this gun has a right end and a wrong end. Make it totally clear to anyone standing at the wrong end that things are going badly for them. If that means sticking all sort of spikes and prongs and blackened bits all over it then so be it. This is not a gun for hanging over the fireplace or sticking in the umbrella stand, it is a gun for going out and making people miserable with." -Douglas Adams
“It is just as difficult and dangerous to try to free a people that wants to remain servile as it is to try to enslave a people that wants to remain free."
-Niccolo Machiavelli
The trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of one's time defending scoundrels. For it is against scoundrels that oppressive laws are first aimed, and oppression must be stopped at the beginning if it is to be stopped at all. -Mencken
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Conservative Behind
Enemy Lines
| All it took was ONE time for me. I had only been driving for a few months when I got into my car one morning and turned the key to "on" and everything came on - loud. Ever since then, I always shut everything off before I turn off the motor.
I found what you said riveting.
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אַרְיֵה
| quote: Originally posted by mikeyspizza:
I have always shut everything down . . . I want the starter and engine to crank with as little load on them as possible.
I was under the impression that power is removed from AC, radio, etc. while the starter is engaged.
הרחפת שלי מלאה בצלופחים |
| | | Posts: 30659 | Location: Central Florida, Orlando area | Registered: January 03, 2010 | 
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A Strangely
Persuasive Monster
| quote: Originally posted by Orguss:
I used to leave the radio on in my last car but with my Taurus, I turn it off before the car. The reason why? The shitty Microsoft-powered SYNC radio will sporadically refuse to play anything the next time the car starts unless I turn off the radio prior to shutting off the car. To remedy the situation means leaving the car off for at least 20 mins. I'm so addicted to listening to music while driving that I can't stand it when the glitch happens.
My Fiesta ST does that too. Drives me shit nuts. I do the same thing you do.
"Arguing with a fool is like playing chess with a pigeon. No matter how good I am at chess, the pigeon is just going to knock over the pieces, shit on the board, and strut around like it's victorious." ~Anonymous |
| | | Posts: 10359 | Location: Raleigh, NC | Registered: February 03, 2007 |
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Old Air Cavalryman
| quote: Originally posted by mikeyspizza:
I have always shut everything down and wait a few seconds. I want to give the alternator that final chance to pump a few micro-amps into the battery, and I want the starter and engine to crank with as little load on them as possible.
I rarely use the a/c (prefer fresh air even if hot) but if I do I shut it down a while parking and not at last minute.
Pretty much same here. I think of it sorta like pre-take off and post landing checks/shut down.
"Also I heard the voice of the Lord saying who shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, here am I, send me."
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| | | Posts: 7464 | Location: Georgia | Registered: February 19, 2005 |
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Get my pies
outta the oven!
| Hmmm, I guess I’m in the minority here which I didn’t realize. I thought most people turned things off when they parked their car prior to shutting the ignition off? Maybe I’m more OCD/anal retentive than I realized.
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| | | Posts: 33795 | Location: Pennsylvania | Registered: November 12, 2007 |
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His diet consists of black
coffee, and sarcasm.
| quote: I thought most people turned things off when they parked their car prior to shutting the ignition off?
I don't. But, FWIW, nobody else drives my car. |
| | | Posts: 27948 | Location: Johnson City, TN | Registered: April 28, 2012 |
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Member
| quote: Originally posted by ARMT Guy:
I think of it sorta like pre-take off and post landing checks/shut down.
Do you chock the wheels when parking and drain a fuel sample during your walk around too? |
| | | Posts: 8955 | Location: The Red part of Minnesota | Registered: October 06, 2002 |
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The cake is a lie!
| I almost always shut off the ac compressor, but usually leave the fan on whatever setting I had it last. I also turn down the volume of the radio before turning the engine off, just because I want it quiet when I get back in.
I almost never turn off the radio, just use the volume knob all the way down if I don't want to hear anything. |
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Sigforum K9 handler
| I turn up the AC in the summer before I get out, and the heat in the winter. That way when I start it the next morning both are blowing at capacity, so it is cooled off or warmed up before I take off. |
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His Royal Hiney
| Everything's automatic, set it, forget it. A/C - heater is climate control. What I notice is when it's 80 outside, I set the temp to 75 which is comfortable and doesn't put me to sleep. When I go in the morning and outside may be 68 and I feel it warm. I then remember to check the temperature and the car is trying to heat the inside air to 75. Radio is on and it has automatic volume control. Headlights are auto on. Windhield wiper is auto on.
"It did not really matter what we expected from life, but rather what life expected from us. We needed to stop asking about the meaning of life, and instead to think of ourselves as those who were being questioned by life – daily and hourly. Our answer must consist not in talk and meditation, but in right action and in right conduct. Life ultimately means taking the responsibility to find the right answer to its problems and to fulfill the tasks which it constantly sets for each individual." Viktor Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning, 1946.
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| | | Posts: 19658 | Location: The Free State of Arizona - Ditat Deus | Registered: March 24, 2011 |
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