All I want to do is change it so that the default for the A/C is off, ie. when you push the Auto button the A/C does not come on.<p>When I start the car I don't like to run the interior heater until the car is up to temperature. The longer an engine runs below temp the more wear occurs, so I want it to get up to temp asap. Sucking heat out for the interior heater slows down the process. I know it isn't much, but over a few years of cold starts it can add up.<p>It's bad enough that turning the system off requires pushing the small, hard to reach fan speed button without any tactile feedback (like a toggle switch or multi-position switch would have).<p>Once the car is up to temperature it would be easiest just to hit the Auto button, however I then have to turn the A/C off again.<p>If the outside temp near or below freezing (which it is for a few too many months in Toronto) I don't even have this option. After pushing the Auto button the A/C is on according to the system but off due to the low temp. This means I can't turn it off manually until the next time it decides the temperature is high enough to turn itself on.<p>This situation is something you don't notice immediately, until you go to pass someone and realize it's on and robbing you of power, and has been on for some indeterminate time and sucking fuel needlessly.<p>In general I don't want the A/C on unless I specifically ask for it, but the ACC is designed to have it on all the time. Personally I don't understand the reasoning behind this. Why can't the ACC just turn the A/C on when it's really needed and turn it off when it's not?<p>Sorry for the rant. I just feel the ACC is a wonderful system 80% of the time, and an extremely annoying and dangerously distracting one the other 20%.<p>98 1.8TQMS<br>

Martin, you might be going overboard. I have noticed on my 98.5 Avant when starting cold, in AUTO the heater fan stays off until the water temp starts climbing, thm the fan slowly comes on. Feel that this is not adding much duty to the engine. My old Coupe Quattro had a similar but not as sophisticated auto climate control; engine was fine when I sold car with 132,000 miles on. This was a car that was parked outside and went thru Western PA winters.<br>

I had a loaner 97 A4 2.8FWD while my 98.5 2.8Q was in the shop. The loaner car's climate control worked very different from mine, and I figured the ECU was recoded. When I turn my climate control system off it stays off until I hit Auto or the fan buttons. This loaner car the climate control system would turn on everytime I started the engine no matter what.<p>Brad Bilut 98.5 2.8 QA