Is A/C on or off?

[MrMotul]

Can anyone help with some info?

My friend has recently bought a 2007 57 plate C220CDI Coupe, which I might add, is a lovely car. It has all the usual extras with Air Con or Climate, with the manual controls (round dials) whatever people choose to call it nowadays. Having owned quite a few Mercedes over the years and driven many more than I have owned over 30 years, I have always been under the assumption that when the red light is on, the aircon/climate is off and when the light is off, the aircon/climate is on, he says that he has read the manual to his new car and it states that, when the red light is on, the aircon/climate is on and when off, the aircon is off. I think he is wrong!
Does anybody happen to have the same or similar car, and can they verify when the aircon/climate is working, is the light on or off?

This would help settle the light on/off dispute, between me and my friend and also notify me that mercedes have changed the way the light works for aircon/climate,

Regards,

Terry.

 

[raymont]

Not the same car but in my car when the light is on the a/c is working.

Should be pretty simple to find out. Set it to the coldest setting and see what temperature the air comes out.

Having said that I seem to remember that on an old (210) E class I once owned the switch was labelled economy ( or words to that effect) and the light on meant economy mode, i.e the a/c was off.

 

[glojo]

He will have a manula and it will say:

Controlling the air conditioning automatically

In automatic mode, the set temperature is maintained at a constant level fully automatically. To do so, the system automatically regulates the temperature of the dispensed air, the airflow and the air distribution.
The automatic air conditioning will achieve optimal operation if "cooling with air dehumidification" is also activated. If necessary, cooling with air dehumidification can be deactivated.

Make sure that the key is in position 2 in the ignition lock.

Set the desired temperature.

To activate: press the

button.
The indicator lamp in the

button comes on. The automatic airflow and air distribution is activated.

To deactivate: press the

button.
The indicator lamp in the

button goes out. Automatic air distribution and airflow are deactivated.

This is an extract for the latest C-class
from

 

[robert.saunders]

When I had my W203, the red light indicated EC on (which is what the button was labelled as), eg econ mode, no cooling. Later models the buttons is labelled as AC and therefore means cooling is switched on

 

[oldcro]

Can anyone help with some info?

My friend has recently bought a 2007 57 plate C220CDI Coupe, which I might add, is a lovely car. It has all the usual extras with Air Con or Climate, with the manual controls (round dials) whatever people choose to call it nowadays. Having owned quite a few Mercedes over the years and driven many more than I have owned over 30 years, I have always been under the assumption that when the red light is on, the aircon/climate is off and when the light is off, the aircon/climate is on, he says that he has read the manual to his new car and it states that, when the red light is on, the aircon/climate is on and when off, the aircon is off. I think he is wrong!
Does anybody happen to have the same or similar car, and can they verify when the aircon/climate is working, is the light on or off?

This would help settle the light on/off dispute, between me and my friend and also notify me that mercedes have changed the way the light works for aircon/climate,

Regards,

Terry.

He is right, when the red light is on A/C is on.

 

[chitaxmoto]

he is right when the red light is on air conditioning is off. on the c class coupe the button has ac/off written and the manual says so as well

 

[davidjpowell]

Red light on means AC on on mine.

 

[MrMotul]

Thank you everyone, having just read the manual for the car and listened to what you all had to say, I now accept that I was wrong and the light on/off policy has changed. I stand corrected,

Regards,

Terry.

 

[Adam230K]

Terry, how you doing? I aint seen you since that last GTG @ MB world with your lovely E500, have you still got it?

 

[Rory]

The way the lights for auto and a/c are set up (even the changed way) is completely stupid. Why on earth they show red when in their normal mode of operation, goodness only knows. Red indicates a warning or problem.

It would make much more sense if the lamps were bi-colour - green for on and red for off, for both the auto and a/c function.

 

[BTB 500]

The way the lights for auto and a/c are set up (even the changed way) is completely stupid. Why on earth they show red when in their normal mode of operation, goodness only knows. Red indicates a warning or problem.

Not in M-Bs. Red indicates that whatever function the switch controls is activated. As mentioned, you just have to look at what the switch says on it.

Originally LEDs only came in red so the colour is not significant. It's just showing 'on'.

 

[Diesel Benz]

Not in M-Bs. Red indicates that whatever function the switch controls is activated. As mentioned, you just have to look at what the switch says on it.

Originally LEDs only came in red so the colour is not significant. It's just showing 'on'.

Correct, but I agree with Rory that it should not show with a red indicator that A/C is on.

I believe MB got so many complaints from the previous implementation where an indicator light came on when the A/C was off (cooling off). In this case the red light was quite OK, sort of warning that A/C is turned off. Now that they followed owners request to have the indicator light on for a device being turned on, A/C cooling in this case, they forgot to change the colour of the indicator. I don't know which other colour would have looked nice but even yellow would have been better, if not blue.

Still, if one looks at the text on the button, it all appears logical.

 

[MrMotul]

Terry, how you doing? I aint seen you since that last GTG @ MB world with your lovely E500, have you still got it?

Im doing OK thanks, but right out of Benz's at the moment. Sold the E500 Limited, bought an E55 AMG as a sort of cushion to soften the blow of selling the W124 and now ive had to sell that, victim of the credit crunch I am afraid Hopefully, my next purchase should be a London Taxi, fingers crossed.

 

[Rory]

Still, if one looks at the text on the button, it all appears logical.

Thanks for the agreement, but the only way I think it can be logical (at least on my car) is if you think of the a/c button as being the econ button. Therefore econ is "on" (ie a/c off) and so the red light shows.

(also, in my car, auto on = red light on)

I think they changed the switch label without thinking about the light operation.

 

[BTB 500]

Now that they followed owners request to have the indicator light on for a device being turned on, A/C cooling in this case, they forgot to change the colour of the indicator.

The light means function rather than device on. In my 1 year old Vito the button is labelled "AC off", so red light means no aircon. Same as my 1997 SL, with its "EC" button.

I do agree though that having an "AC" button (red light when aircon is on) is silly.

 

[davidjpowell]

I might easily be wrong about this, but have a feeling that on my old W210 the EC light was amber?