I finally got tired of the A/C coming on when I don't want it.Thats when the engine is cold and I want fresh air going to the defroster and its cold inside the car brrr. And everytime i turn on another vent function after using one of the A/C enabled modes or whenever i want to use the defroster period. So, after checking the wiring diagrams and being lazy and not wanting to wire another switch somewheres in the cockpit, i decided the easiest thing is to just disable the compressor clutch by pulling the fan clutch relay for most of the winter! If you want to devote more energy and have more control just cut a wire to the relay or to the fan clutch and wire a toggle switch to it.
I tried it out and was mainly concerned about any error codes upon car startup but nothing happened except no A/C! Store the relay in a good place and plug it in once or twice during the winter to run the A/C compressor briefly to keep things lubed up and plug it back in for the summer.
THe relay is easy to get it. It is under the hood in the big relay/fuse box in front of the battery. It is the small black relay on the driver side of the box closest to the front right above the large 40amp fuse. Just give it a little tug and out it comes.

 

well.. remember that it won't defrost your windows anywhere near as good now as it does with the A/C compressor running...

 

Exactly, the a/c dehumidifies the air and makes the fog from the inside of the window disappear real quick. I always run the a/c and recirculate mode on when I need to get the windows defrosted in under 30 seconds.

 

Screw the A/C (in the winter anyway)! I have been seriously annoyed by the A/C coming on when I don't want it for a while. I never use the A/C when defrosting any of my other cars and it always worked fine. Good post.

 

You want to cycle the A/C 10 minutes every week during the winter. Check your owner's manual.

 

Why do you need to deforst? I mean with the top down, I never seem to have a problem...oh wait, thats right, some of you drive top up and are in the snow belt. O, then that makes sense. j/k

Never really had a problem with the ac staying on after running defrost though...I mean the ac button isnt exactly inconvenient to get to... the defrost defintiely works beter with the ac on, but i guess its a good solution for those who feel its a probelm though

 

On 2002 and up models, the A/C button will not deactivate the A/C when the selector is set to defrost. Big PITA if you don't want to have it on.

 

No kidding, why put in a button if you can't turnit off? The A/C should definately be optional. I always figured the A/C switch was between the seats anyhow....

 

I know that the domestic brand of cars don't utilize the A/C compressor when defrosting but many of the Japanses models do. In fact, all of the Honda's require the A/C to effectively defrost your windshield.

Our Pilot does the same thing. So did my wife's previous Accord.

This "standard on" for the A/C started in the '02 models. '00 and '01's have to manually set their A/C when defrosting. Honestly, I don't see it as an issue but this is an informative post for anyone that gets annoyed by it.

 

On the contrary, domestics (at least the ones I've owned) almost always force the AC on when you're in defrost.

Given all the truly annoying things about this car, this seems to hardly qualify as bothersome, much less annoying.

Tim