RE: Ventilation System Question

[dmichael@tdh.qntm.com]

>Why does Audi disable the air conditioning compressor when the
>temperature drops below 40F? (I can't remember the exact temperature,
>but it was around that number).

>I've got an A6 with climate control.  This weekend was our first
>trip to the mountains for skiing and when the windows started to
>fog up, I put on the defroster.  Instead of the cold air that quickly
>clears the windows in moderate temperatures, the defroster spit
>out a lot of warm air that quickly fogged up all the windows.

I have found EXACTLY the same problem on my 90 CQ. It royaly ticks me 
off also (actually, the whole "I know better than you do" auto climate system
ticks me off). The sistuation you described is when it happens the worst to me
also: snowing, but not much below freezeing. 

I was totally stunned to read the thread a few days ago about the fact that 
the A4 has exactly the same stupid "feature" even though it ostensibly has a 
"manual" mode that lets you turn the a/c on. 

If the owners manual states that the compressor won't run below 3? degrees,
then I would suspect your system is working as designed.

As an aside, my MB 190E 2.3-16 has two different a/c buttons for the auto
temp systems; a normal "use it when you need to" snow flake and a "turn the
compressor on no matter what" defrost mode. That car was made in 1986! Audi,
are you listening?

I have thought about wiring a switch and a few relays to shunt the two outside
air temp sensors to resistors that "read" 50 degrees or so. But that 
is a huge pain in the @##$%.

If you find a solution, let us know.

Dave