Alright, bro, I'll tackle this one. I'll be nicer than some would be, too.
On our cars, when you turn the dial to front defrost, it automatically turns on the A/C compressor to dry the air going across the windshield. This is to remove all that fog you and your girlfriend managed to put there
.
The clicking noise is the compressor clutch kicking in. It turns off and on periodically. The whisling noise is the A/C cooling fan. If you look at the radiator assembly, it has two fans. One is controlled by engine temp, and the other is for the A/C. The fans on our cars make a tremendous amount of noise. Sounds like a big Kenworth blower or something.
The reason it draws power like you said is because the A/C compressor is an added load that the engine has to turn. All this is perfectly normal, and not to be worried about.
The things you should worry about are covered under the FAQ and MOD links on the main page.
Now for the soap box:
This feature is an idiot switch sort of thing that all manufacturers are going to nowadays. I hate all these cars that think they are smarter than me. Used to be, if you wanted warm air to thaw out the windshield, you would turn the direction selector to defrost, and turn the temp nob to hot (which it would have been at anyway if it was that cold).
If there was fog on the inside of the windshield, you would push the A/C switch. Very simple. Now they make cars that don't have A/C switches at all. They think that I only want conditioned air coming out of the dash vents or at the windshield. Maybe I want cold air directly on my feet if I have hot feet or something.
Also notice there isn't that little outside/recirculate switch anymore? The only time you can put the HVAC on recirculate is with Max AC.
My point is I don't want to have to deal with the drag of the A/C compressor every time I want warm air on the windshield or want to block out some nasty old pickup spewing unburned hydrocarbons at me.
I want to have the choice, not have the car make the choice for me.
I liked it when cars were stupider than they are now.
What about everybody else?
Sorry. Been wanting to do that for a while.
Peace
Jed
