Why does my car stall when I turn on my air conditioner?
When I turn my air conditioner on my car starts jerking and some times even stalls.

Could you please tell me what may be causing this?

Mitsibi, Mississippi
Visitor Comment

 

Your A/C takes some relatively small amount of power from the engine to run its compressor. That amount of power is a drag that pulls down the engine's RPM just enough to cause it to stall, or nearly stall.

The engine idle decreases and it is not being given enough gas/air mixture to operate at this lowered RPM.

The engine gas/air mixture should be adjusted to compensate for the power it must use to drive the A/C compressor.
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