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Air Conditioning

3618 Views 11 Replies 10 Participants Last post by  Chad, 
G
Almost every car that I've owned in the past 20 or so years allows you to choose whether the A/C operates in the defrost position. Except my Rio. Running the A/C saps the already meager acceleration and also drops my fuel mileage 3-4 mpg. How feasible is disconnecting the auto A/C? Anyone done it? Cheers-Marty
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1fastkia
ive been trying to do this on my spectra and havent found a way yet!! still looking. they say there is a button configuration that if you hit the buttons in a certain order it will shut it off but it hasnt worked for me. this is how they say to do it
put the defrost fan at 0
then hit the resurculate button 5 times. the a/c button is supposed to flash and it will be off. but it dont work on my spectra. maybe it will on the rio. make sure car is on.



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P
YES i have done it,

you must put the knob on 0 positon than select defrost.
After that press 5 times button for internal air. You will see lites.
Aftet that AC will never start on that position.

regards,
Petar
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B
Just did it to my 2004 kia rio and it worked.. to turn it back on to the same thing again.. :-D :-D.. Thanks that pissed me off TOO...

Jason
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P
NO PROBLEM YOU ARE WELCOME :D


greetings from Belgrade - http://www.beograd.org.yu/english/
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S
This is an old post but no one seemed to mention that the '02 rios don't have the recirculate "button" they still had a simple selector lever. The '03 rios like mine were the first that were programmable. I think if you have an '02 your just stuck with it, unless you want to tear into the wiring and stuff.
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U
This is a fact; there is no recirculate button, on Rios 2001. No matter how complicated it is, I WANT to disable air conditionning when in defrost position.

(In fact, I want to be able to activate it manually, by pressing the A/C button only if I want to use A/C when using defrost)

Does someone knows how I can do this or, at least, where I can find informations about how I can do this? (I tryed asking mechanics at the Kia dealer where I bought my car and they simply answered me that is is IMPOSSIBLE to do this on Rios, no matter the year of the car. I presume they were never informed that this feature was present on these cars)

Thanks in advance

Nico
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K
2
Here is what I've done to solve the 2001 or 2002 with the slide resurculate lever.

First, pull out the ashtray and remove the screw behind it.
Pull the resurculate knob off.
Pull off the trim that goes around the radio and air control knobs. It pops off.
Remove the 4 screws around the air control unit.

Now, there is a micro switch that gets depressed when you slide the control towards defrost or floor/defrost shown in picture.



What brains at KIA figured to put this switch here is beyond me! Total uselessness.
This switch turns the A/C on when you don’t want it. The center button on the fan speed is enough for a person to decide when they want the A/C on.

I simply cut the switch off and tie wrapped the wires to the bulkier wires coming from the fan control.



That’s it! It works like a charm and the car is 1 switch lighter for better gas mileage.

Happy trails.

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U
Great post man!! Thanks! I'm gonna try this as soon as I get home!
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K
Your welcome!

Hey while I'm at it, I should mention the rear wheel bearings. Change them B4 it's too late.

I will start a new thread on this subject.
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M
Mod worked great

Did the mod on the a/c last weekend. Ten minute job and now I can select a/c in any mode with impunity. Muahahahahahahaha!!!
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C
Memorex88 said:
Here is what I've done to solve the 2001 or 2002 with the slide resurculate lever.

First, pull out the ashtray and remove the screw behind it.
Pull the resurculate knob off.
Pull off the trim that goes around the radio and air control knobs. It pops off.
Remove the 4 screws around the air control unit.

Now, there is a micro switch that gets depressed when you slide the control towards defrost or floor/defrost shown in picture.



What brains at KIA figured to put this switch here is beyond me! Total uselessness.
This switch turns the A/C on when you don’t want it. The center button on the fan speed is enough for a person to decide when they want the A/C on.

I simply cut the switch off and tie wrapped the wires to the bulkier wires coming from the fan control.



That’s it! It works like a charm and the car is 1 switch lighter for better gas mileage.

Happy trails.
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Thanks for the great writeup! I just got done with it and it works great. Just thought I'd add my own two cents in here. You don't have to cut the switch off. I just took the two screws out of the backside that hold the switch near the defrost knob and tied the whole thing out of the way. It works the same as cutting it off, but this way if I ever wanted to return it to the way it was all I have to do it mount the switch again. Maybe it's just me, but I prefer to do things so that they are reversible. I can't think of why I'd want to hook it back up, but this way I can if I want.
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