altima AC compressor cycles whenever blower is on?

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whenever I have the blower on in the car, instead of switched to off, the AC compressor will cycle on and off about every 20-30 seconds. It does not matter if the led on the AC button is illuminated, nor the led for exterior air or recycle air is pressed, nor whether the temp knob is full hot or full cold, nor whatever the vent selector is set to. I can have it set on feet only full hot and the AC compressor will cycle.
The only time the AC compressor will not turn on is if I have the blower knob turned to off, so no air is being blown into the car.
Is this normal?
2005 nissan altima, 2.5
 
Don't know exactly what the altima's set up for, but my civic will turn on the AC compressor if defrost is on, or if the feet only vent mode is selected. It doesn't turn on if the vents are set face and feet or just face (and the defroster is off). It turns on the AC to dry out the air to prevent fogging.

I imagine the altima has a similar "feature". It may be detailed in the owner's manual.
 
That almost sounds like a short in the control panel which is causing the wire to the compressor to get power whenever the blower motor is turned on.
 
1FMF,
I have an 04 2.5 S and mine doesn't do what your's does. But my Altima is a very basic version. My A/C only cycles when I have the selector on full DEF or Heat/DEF, and of course, other normal A/C modes. Almost sounds like your car is equiped with Climate Control.
 
If you have auto climate control, the A/C will cycle regardless where the air is directed until you choose 'economy' or whatever they've labled the button that turns the A/C off. My friend's G35 is similar and when I just want outside air, I have to hunt around and find the 'economy' button so I don't end up a popsicle.

If you have manual controls, the A/C shouldn't cycle on Vent or Vent/Floor. Anything past that and it will run.
 
it's a basic model, 2.5, no pwr sets only pwr windows. the hvac controls are manual knobs, knob on left is blower which also turns everything off and has push button for recycle air or exterior air. middle knob is temperature, which pushbutton in center for AC, and knob on right is selector for feet/vent/defog with pushbutton for rear window defrost.

i don't even know if i should go or call the dealer, I'm anticipating 1 of 2 responses- bring it in we'll fix and they'll lie to me over something that isn't a problem, or not want to be bothered with it being the lazy losers they are and tell me it's normal.

i thought i remember, when car was newish that i could run the blower without ac on exterior air and get regular air, it would be warm like outside. i'll have to do some more diagnosing i think to rule out coincidences, i didn't time it but it seemed to cycle at regular intervals which i doubt would be a short.
 
called 1 dealership, and found a thread at nissanforums, apparently it is normal for the ac compressor to come on and cycle... which is stupid.
 
Originally Posted By: 1 FMF
called 1 dealership, and found a thread at nissanforums, apparently it is normal for the ac compressor to come on and cycle... which is stupid.


I can't buy it. There would be no bean counter that would allow the use of a A/C select (center button) switch to be installed on a vehicle that doesn't need it. You've got the owners manual, look at the instructions on how to use AC. If it mentions the switch (button) then the dealer is FOS or should be able to show you the correction in the form of a TSB to advise customers citing the flawed owners manual entry. It would also (probably) mention that the switch was installed on the wrong model (whatever) and serves no purpose.
 
I don't know if this applies to your situation, but here's what I discovered to be a NORMAL trait of my 2006 Nissan Frontier:

If you start the truck and the A/C is off, it's possible to run the vent or vent/floor without A/C cycling. If you turn the knob to 'floor' or beyond, the A/C cycles. And it is designed to continue cycling even if you turn it back to vent or vent/floor and won't stop until you shut the truck off and re-start.

I discovered this one rainy afternoon when I was driving with the vent on. My windshield began to fog, so I switched over to floor/defrost until it cleared. When I returned it to 'vent', the A/C continued to cycle. I drove straight to Nissan and they told me that they continuously receive complaints about it, but it's functioning as designed.

Stupid, but normal in other words.
 
Originally Posted By: rationull
Can you confirm whether or not the AC compressor runs when you've got AC off, blower on, set to vent only (no floor)?


i have to do some more diagnosing to rule out coincidence and be 100% sure but,

I know right now from all the testing I've done, I did not hit the ac button and the led labeled AC was never on, and the [censored] compressor cycles. I also understand if you turn the knob to defog that the ac compressor will activate to pull out humidity. But I put the temp to full hot, selector to floor only, then started the car, and when I hit the button to change exterior air to recycle even though that led does not illuminate the ac compressor will kick on. I can shut the hvac off and compressor will go off, but if i turn back on floor heat the ac compressor will cycle. And all this will also happen if I select dash vent only. My next trial will be do start the car with vent only selected, temp on cold, no ac, and see if the compressor kicks on- i don't remember specifically doing this from startup.
 
AC comes on in cars nowadays at various vent setting.
Like the old "Outer Limits" TV show, THEY control the volume -THEY control the Picture, etc..
WE have no choice.
 
"My next trial will be do start the car with vent only selected, temp on cold, no ac, and see if the compressor kicks on"

This will be the tell-all. They may have programmed the Altima to work the same was as the Frontier, where the only way you can get A/C-free air circulation is if you start off on a setting that doesn't call for A/C.
 
Originally Posted By: mechtech2
AC comes on in cars nowadays at various vent setting.
Like the old "Outer Limits" TV show, THEY control the volume -THEY control the Picture, etc..
WE have no choice.


Sure we do! If I couldn't have done it this way, there's always the option of just adding a simple switch between the HVAC control and the compressor:

Mazda3 HVAC Mod
 
if i never hit the button for recycling air then everything will work as normal. I can turn on the ac and turn off the ac and the compressor will not come back on. Although I did not try the defog setting to see once off from that if the ac compressor cycles.

it's only when I hit the air recycle button will the ac compressor kick on and cycle. I can turn the blower off and the ac compressor will stay off but if I don't shut the car off and turn anything back on for hvac then the compressor will kick on and cycle. Once i've hit the air recycle button, I have to turn the car off to stop the compressor from running if I blow any kind of air.
 
That is part of the design. Alot of new cars have that feature where if the air is put to recycle the a/c kicks in regardless of temp. Helps reduce the extra moisture in the air the builds up when fresh air is not let in.
 
Plus they add the additional trick of having an ambient temperature sensor to allow AC activation only at certain temps in certain vent modes.
 
Originally Posted By: 1 FMF
Originally Posted By: rationull
Can you confirm whether or not the AC compressor runs when you've got AC off, blower on, set to vent only (no floor)?


i have to do some more diagnosing to rule out coincidence and be 100% sure but,

I know right now from all the testing I've done, I did not hit the ac button and the led labeled AC was never on, and the [censored] compressor cycles. I also understand if you turn the knob to defog that the ac compressor will activate to pull out humidity. But I put the temp to full hot, selector to floor only, then started the car, and when I hit the button to change exterior air to recycle even though that led does not illuminate the ac compressor will kick on. I can shut the hvac off and compressor will go off, but if i turn back on floor heat the ac compressor will cycle. And all this will also happen if I select dash vent only. My next trial will be do start the car with vent only selected, temp on cold, no ac, and see if the compressor kicks on- i don't remember specifically doing this from startup.


Okay, so our current status indicates that this assuredly happens when you're on recirculation mode, correct? I would think that the heat/cool setting wouldn't effect this in any way. The compressor will cycle due to its own limiting hardware/inputs. You should merely be changing mixing doors with the temp knob (probably already said).
 
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