Air Con/climate control

Anyone had/having any problems with theirs?

Noticed the other day,after the engine had warmed up that even on the lowest heater setting (17 degrees) I was still getting relatively warmish air through.tried the air con and made very little difference- was like it wasn't working.

Had it at the dealer today who confirmed the problem (engine/engine bay still warm)-they re-charged the air con (even though it didn't need it-it was showing as full on their machine).Tested it and it was ok - driving home,engine warm again and exact same thing happened!!

Two things here......

1 - Air con not working when engine and engine bay warm.

2 - I'm not convinced it's blowing cool enough air through when air-con not on and set to the lowest setting - my Hawkeye would of been like a bleeding igloo if I'd tried this with it.

Any ideas anyone??

Mine has done this, was it pretty cold outside (sub 5), only happened the once but tried to put air con on when it was pretty cold outside and all I got was warm air coming through no matter waht I pressed, really confused me at the time but think that there must be some sensor that at a certain temp stops low temp air con coming through to the cabin.

Keep and eye on it and the outside temp as since the weather has warmed up mine has been fine.

A

Abz wrote:Mine has done this, was it pretty cold outside (sub 5), only happened the once but tried to put air con on when it was pretty cold outside and all I got was warm air coming through no matter waht I pressed, really confused me at the time but think that there must be some sensor that at a certain temp stops low temp air con coming through to the cabin.

Keep and eye on it and the outside temp as since the weather has warmed up mine has been fine.

A

It was around 4 degrees.This was exactly what I thought as well but according to the manual the air-con should work above 0 degrees?

Also can't understand why it was ok when engine cool and car at a standstill.

I wonder if its windchill, at standstill at 4 degrees the sensor will read 4 degrees, on the move this could be well below zero, would have hoped Subaru took this into consideration but perhaps not!

Abz wrote:I wonder if its windchill, at standstill at 4 degrees the sensor will read 4 degrees, on the move this could be well below zero, would have hoped Subaru took this into consideration but perhaps not!

Perhaps-hope it's something as simple as that!

Is the sensor not advanced enough to pick wind chill up and then post the temperature up accordingly onto the instrument display (assuming it's the same sensor!!)

try hold the left hand dial in for a few seconds, you will see the light flash a couple of times, this is now in manual mode and should let you control the temps better. ignition off will reset it back to auto again or holding in the dial again.

renny wrote:Anyone had/having any problems with theirs?

Noticed the other day,after the engine had warmed up that even on the lowest heater setting (17 degrees) I was still getting relatively warmish air through.tried the air con and made very little difference- was like it wasn't working.

I've got exactly the same problem. Makes no difference how much button pushing/holding I do or if the AC is on or not. On full cold it's cold but from 17 to max it ranges from very hot to Swedish sauna!

Mentioned it to dealer last week and it's not a problem they've come across before but did suggest it might be the air mix actuator playing up. They said they were going to contact Subaru UK tech to see if they could shed any light - which reminds me, I must phone them tomorrow for an update .

Spoken to dealer this morning who in turn have spoken to Subaru UK tech. No known issues with the Impreza but there is a known issue with the Legacy and as the parts are essentially the same this will be what gets checked first.

The issue is the "in vehicle temp sensor" located behind the grill to the left of the steering column. There is a hose attached to it which if blocked/split/detached etc can cause all manner of erratic heat output.

Car's booked in next Wednesday for the initial diagnostic and fingers crossed it's as simple as that. I'll post up the results.

Rheid wrote:Spoken to dealer this morning who in turn have spoken to Subaru UK tech. No known issues with the Impreza but there is a known issue with the Legacy and as the parts are essentially the same this will be what gets checked first.

The issue is the "in vehicle temp sensor" located behind the grill to the left of the steering column. There is a hose attached to it which if blocked/split/detached etc can cause all manner of erratic heat output.

Car's booked in next Wednesday for the initial diagnostic and fingers crossed it's as simple as that. I'll post up the results.

Thanks Rheid - that's very helpful.Keep us updated.

Got mine booked in next Tuesday so I will pass this info onto the dealer.

renny wrote:

Thanks Rheid - that's very helpful.Keep us updated.

Got mine booked in next Tuesday so I will pass this info onto the dealer.

Ok, small update. Unfotunately had to cancel taking the car into the dealers as something cropped up that took priority so no further info from that end.

However, what I've been doing since I posted about this last week is monitoring the interior temperature using, of all things, a battery powered baby monitor with room temp thermometer built in - probably not 100% accurate but close enough to be useful. Anyway, it would appear that maybe all is well, across the scale the monitored interior temp is within 0.5 deg of what the temp dial is set to. The odd thing is it still "feels" much warmer than it would actually appear to be and even with the dial set to 17 it's still warm air blowing. I'm going to try using a more acurate mercury thermometer and see what the results are from that before re-booking into dealers.

Rheid wrote:

renny wrote:

Thanks Rheid - that's very helpful.Keep us updated.

Got mine booked in next Tuesday so I will pass this info onto the dealer.

Ok, small update. Unfotunately had to cancel taking the car into the dealers as something cropped up that took priority so no further info from that end.

However, what I've been doing since I posted about this last week is monitoring the interior temperature using, of all things, a battery powered baby monitor with room temp thermometer built in - probably not 100% accurate but close enough to be useful. Anyway, it would appear that maybe all is well, across the scale the monitored interior temp is within 0.5 deg of what the temp dial is set to. The odd thing is it still "feels" much warmer than it would actually appear to be and even with the dial set to 17 it's still warm air blowing. I'm going to try using a more acurate mercury thermometer and see what the results are from that before re-booking into dealers.

Cheers mate,unfortunately I had to cancel yesterday as well- what effect does your air-con have though.You should still 'feel' the air con when it is set in manual,mine seems to have no effect at times.

renny wrote:Cheers mate,unfortunately I had to cancel yesterday as well- what effect does your air-con have though.You should still 'feel' the air con when it is set in manual,mine seems to have no effect at times.

All the testing I've done so far has been with AC on and everything set to Auto. It's a really time consuming business as it takes ages for a new temp setting to stabilise. Next stage is to test with AC on in manual mode.

However, if I'm correctly understanding the way the system works, then in theory it shouldn't make any difference whether the AC is on or not or whether it's in manual or auto mode. It's still reading the same temp sensors and adjusting/regulating air flow through the matrix accordingly. It would appear that the only point in the AC being on is if the outide ambient air temp is higher than you want the interior to be and/or for de-humidifying.

More testing and research happening over the next few days.

Rheid wrote:

renny wrote:Cheers mate,unfortunately I had to cancel yesterday as well- what effect does your air-con have though.You should still 'feel' the air con when it is set in manual,mine seems to have no effect at times.

All the testing I've done so far has been with AC on and everything set to Auto. It's a really time consuming business as it takes ages for a new temp setting to stabilise. Next stage is to test with AC on in manual mode.

However, if I'm correctly understanding the way the system works, then in theory it shouldn't make any difference whether the AC is on or not or whether it's in manual or auto mode. It's still reading the same temp sensors and adjusting/regulating air flow through the matrix accordingly. It would appear that the only point in the AC being on is if the outide ambient air temp is higher than you want the interior to be and/or for de-humidifying.

More testing and research happening over the next few days.

Did you manage to get your car in to be looked at?

Putting mine in for it's service next week and want them to have a look at mine but they've pretty much already told me they don't know what to look for!

Any help appreciated!

renny wrote:

Rheid wrote:

renny wrote:Cheers mate,unfortunately I had to cancel yesterday as well- what effect does your air-con have though.You should still 'feel' the air con when it is set in manual,mine seems to have no effect at times.

All the testing I've done so far has been with AC on and everything set to Auto. It's a really time consuming business as it takes ages for a new temp setting to stabilise. Next stage is to test with AC on in manual mode.

However, if I'm correctly understanding the way the system works, then in theory it shouldn't make any difference whether the AC is on or not or whether it's in manual or auto mode. It's still reading the same temp sensors and adjusting/regulating air flow through the matrix accordingly. It would appear that the only point in the AC being on is if the outide ambient air temp is higher than you want the interior to be and/or for de-humidifying.

More testing and research happening over the next few days.

Did you manage to get your car in to be looked at?

Putting mine in for it's service next week and want them to have a look at mine but they've pretty much already told me they don't know what to look for!

Any help appreciated!

Sorry, meant to update sooner!

After exhaustively monitoring interior temps on all possible settings of auto, semi-auto and manual it would appear that mine is actually functioning as it should. To me, it still feels much warmer than it actually is but instruments don't lie - at least mercury thermometers don't!

What I have found makes a huge difference to the "feel" is if I don't have air directed at the windscreen. Must be something to do with warmish air blowing at head height that gives the warmer than it is illusion. Like you, even at 17 deg it's still warm air blowing but now that I no longer have it permanently directed at the screen I'm finding that 18 or 19 deg is comfortable even with a jacket on.

As I said before, it should make no difference to the interior temp control (regardless of whether the air con is on or off or auto/semi-auto/manual) as long as the outside air temp is lower than the target interior temp.

It may be completely different on your car and there may actually be a fault (although if there is a fault it should be present in all modes) but I would suggest you do a spot of DIY monitoring before giving it to the dealers - at least that way you'll have a baseline to work from.

I hope that's of some help!

Neil.

Rheid wrote:

renny wrote:

Rheid wrote:

renny wrote:Cheers mate,unfortunately I had to cancel yesterday as well- what effect does your air-con have though.You should still 'feel' the air con when it is set in manual,mine seems to have no effect at times.

All the testing I've done so far has been with AC on and everything set to Auto. It's a really time consuming business as it takes ages for a new temp setting to stabilise. Next stage is to test with AC on in manual mode.

However, if I'm correctly understanding the way the system works, then in theory it shouldn't make any difference whether the AC is on or not or whether it's in manual or auto mode. It's still reading the same temp sensors and adjusting/regulating air flow through the matrix accordingly. It would appear that the only point in the AC being on is if the outide ambient air temp is higher than you want the interior to be and/or for de-humidifying.

More testing and research happening over the next few days.

Did you manage to get your car in to be looked at?

Putting mine in for it's service next week and want them to have a look at mine but they've pretty much already told me they don't know what to look for!

Any help appreciated!

Sorry, meant to update sooner!

After exhaustively monitoring interior temps on all possible settings of auto, semi-auto and manual it would appear that mine is actually functioning as it should. To me, it still feels much warmer than it actually is but instruments don't lie - at least mercury thermometers don't!

What I have found makes a huge difference to the "feel" is if I don't have air directed at the windscreen. Must be something to do with warmish air blowing at head height that gives the warmer than it is illusion. Like you, even at 17 deg it's still warm air blowing but now that I no longer have it permanently directed at the screen I'm finding that 18 or 19 deg is comfortable even with a jacket on.

As I said before, it should make no difference to the interior temp control (regardless of whether the air con is on or off or auto/semi-auto/manual) as long as the outside air temp is lower than the target interior temp.

It may be completely different on your car and there may actually be a fault (although if there is a fault it should be present in all modes) but I would suggest you do a spot of DIY monitoring before giving it to the dealers - at least that way you'll have a baseline to work from.

I hope that's of some help!

Neil.

Thanks Neil.