climate control

[xcursion]

There is a small "grill" behind the right side of the steering wheel, next to the ignition. Any one knows if this be the sensor for temp?

 

[Houm_WA]

Houm, I finally got a chance to play with the a/c sys in my truck. With the fan rotary *** to off, the system shuts down, no air from front vents. And with different temp setting between left and right, it works as it suppose to, in both auto or manual mode. Although I must say in auto mode, the difference in temp is more noticable. So I would have your dealer check your system. As for removing or unscrew panels or parts from interior, I feel you. I know its probably just me, but I swear I feel the car is looser every time they do that. So I wont let the dealer remove anything unless absolutely neccessary.

Dronedog, how about cutting a windshield shade to fit that gap? Would be easy to fold and store when not in use. Just a thought.

xcursion...I feel exactly like you do, if it isn't absolutely necessary I don't want anyone messing with things. The more times you take something apart, things can happen. Either the fasteners get looser and introduces rattles and just looser tolerances or something can actually be rendered defective in the process

 

[dronedog]

There is a small "grill" behind the right side of the steering wheel, next to the ignition. Any one knows if this be the sensor for temp?

i know on previous cars this is where they put the thermostat. according to that dealer and the manual (Japanese) the computer used a formula to compare the inside temp, the temp setting, and the light sensor to determine where air should come out and at what temp setting.

the dog

 

[dronedog]

something to try:
this weekend i cut three pieces of cardboard to cover the skylight openings. one reason was to see if it would help cut wind noise, which i don't think it did, and two to see if it would help with the inside temp. it is pretty darn cold today and the wind is blowing pretty hard. tonight i will be travleing about 3 hours and i will get a good feel on the temp side. friday evening i made the same run and it just felt cold in the car. i had the temp set on 74 so i kept pushing it up. but then my legs started to burn up and i still felt cool. i finally set the temp setting up to about 78, set the fan speed on low and had the air come out the middle vents. i felt most comfirtable this way. maybe it was because there was now air coming out behind me from the console vents or maybe i could send out hot air without burning my feet.
anyway, i know on our other car that when it is cold if you leave the skylite cover back it feels cool. so i figured what the heck, give this a try.
i used cardboard because i would not find anything cheap that i wanted to use. this cardboard is about 1/4 inch thick and is really too tight for the back two skylights but it will work for an experiment. i'll let you know how if it helped tonight.
the dog

 

[dronedog]

well i took my ride this evening. it does make quite a difference to close off these skylites. when you think about it, it makes sense. you have cold glass which causes cold air next to the glass. the cold air is trying to get to the floor and the hot air is trying to rise. a natural draft.
tonight it was 27* and the wind was howling. i had the dial set on 72* and it was very comfortable the whole time. my feet did not bake and i was not cold.
now i am thinking what material i can get to close these off whenever it is cold. i have a 5 passenger model so the back one is a no brainer. but i am not sure aboutthe other two. the front one i can use something as thick as 1/4 foam but the middle and back only have room for something about 1/8 thick. since this winter is about over, i am thinking of just getting some bubble wrap and sticking it to the glass. once you pull the screens, you can't see it. it is easy to fit and i can even tape it to the glass to hold it while i pull the screens. if someone were to slide the screen back it would not fall on their head. then by next year maybe i can find a material i would like.
if any of you northern guys are thinking of trying this and have any ideas, please let me know.
the dog

 

[Amir]

interesting dronedog. it is pretty cold tonight with winds, etc. its about 17 now and i had a chance to drive for like an hour outside. Set the temperature to 72 but it still remained cold inside. The front vents flow was not there at all. Whats up with that? Anybody else notice that the air flow from the front vents is non-existent... Also, i noticed my hands on the steering wheel were very cold as well, i had both hands on top of the steering wheel, this is after driving for a while.

And the heated seats, wow, used them for the first time, took nearly 10 minutes to warm the seats...is that how long they usually take, i guess it depends how cold it is outside....

 

[grommet]

Amir, heat output is generally directed out the bottom vents (cold days), and A/C is directed to the upper vents (hot days)... which mostly makes sense. Turn the knob back and forth between hottest and coldest to see how the system selects the vents. If you don't like this behavior, you can manually select the vents you want.

Anyway, I cruised quite comfortably when it was 22 F outside... with the system set to around 70 F.

The seats are electrically warmed and it can take a little bit... I personally think it gets too hot, even at half level.

 

[Amir]

thanks grommet, that actually make sense, i will experiment tomorrow. When you were cruising in 22F, did you have your system on FULL auto?

 

[grommet]

Full auto in front, but I let the rear passengers control the rear.

 

[Michael]

no the car's temperature was normal (around halfway between C and H markings). I think the combination of cold and hot air in this truck is what keeps the windows/windscreen fog-free regardless of how cold it is outside. I have also noticed that in full auto mode, air coming from the dash-vents (where the dash and windscreen meet) is always cold (not too cold) with knobs set in between 68 and 72, no matter what the outside temperature is.

Actually, it would be better for the air to be hot, rather than cold to keep moisture off the windshield (hot air can carry more moisture than cold).

I think what is happening here is the same thing that my Corvette does. Some A/C engineer decided that people like their legs warm, and upper torso cooler. That may be true, but what I have experienced with car climate controls is the extreme. Only after turning the temp up to 85 did warm air start coming out of the dash vents, which is ridiculous. I finally gave up, and just set the climate control to only use the dash vents, regardless of whether it was warm or cold outside. If my feet get cold, I set it to only use the floor vents, and switch it back to dash after a while.

BMW allows the user to set the difference in temperature between the dash and floor vents. There ought to be a international law requiring this. What the engineers fail to do in many cases as our cars get more computerized, is provide "user programmability".

Michael