A guy came to look at my car today for possible purchase. He didn’t end up buying it. One of the reasons he gave was this.* The car was originally purchased in California, and according to him, this means the car will not do well in Indiana during the winter, due to differences in the specifications usually followed when manufacturing cars for sale in different regions of the country.
Is this true?
*Another reason was when we got in the car to turn it on, the A/C fan came on–while the A/C was switched off.. This is, as far as I know, the first time this has ever happened in this car. What the hell, car?
Not in the least. Pure, total, absolute bullshit (with the possible exception of using a different proportion of antifreeze to water in Alaska).
What do you mean by “A/C fan?” The blower through the inside ductwork for the A/C, heater, and vent? The electric radiator fan in the engine compartment? TheA/C condenser fan in the engine compartment?
Well there a tiny shred of truth there.
Depending on make, year, model, and engine the car maker might have a 49 state version and a California version for emissions compliance.
Back in the 80s there could have been a difference in cold start performance.
Now? I doubt it.
My attention was so riveted to the thread title’s mention of cooling systems that I didn’t even think of possible performance differences. Now I’m guessing that’s likely what the fellow was referring to
So, difference in engine cooling system, no. Difference in engine performance or driveability, maybe, as you’ve outlined.
Are you sure the A/C actually kicked on while switched off? Or, was your engine idling, and the fan kicked on to cool the engine with something more than the stagnant air all around it? Did you actually see the A/C compressor clutch engage?
If he was actually talking about the cooling system (which is what my response was based on), I don’t know where he would gotten the idea. If he was talking about how the engine would run, then the concept is plausible, though pretty likely obsolete, as Rick mentioned. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was based on an experience from twenty-some years ago with a carbureted engine, with no consideration given to the fact that the technology has evolvd and improved – a lot – since then.
I don’t suppose it was simply a matter of the blower being switched on even though the A/C was off (possible on some designs)?
Well, if you go back far enough (although not as far as you’d think!) it was possible that a California car wouldn’t have a heater. At least until the early 70’s it was possible to delete the heater option on some basic cars. Pretty much nobody in their right mind would actually order a car that way, but the State of California was fond of buying fleet car without heaters, so there were a fair number of them floating around the used car market and they did float around to other states. Since they still had a blower motor and vent controls, it was sometimes hard to tell they didn’t actually have a heater core, so if you bought the car in the summer you might be in for a nasty surprise come winter. Maybe this guy got burned on one of those back in the distant past.
One other slightly more plausible theory is that maybe he wanted a car with a factory-installed block heater, which are unheard of in places such as California but are pretty much standard in new cars sold in northern states these days.
The guy was very specific about his point involving the cooling system. He believed (or said, anyway) the car wouldn’t run well in the winter unless, after he bought it, he made “adjustments to the cooling system.”
It’s possible it was a slip of the tongue, and that he twice said “cooling” when he meant “emissions” (it really is a possibility–English wasn’t his first language after all) but the mention of winter seems to add evidence to the idea that he really was thinking of the cooling system, I think. Probably something about how the car gets antifreeze to different parts in the car…