So, you turn on the system, AC seems to come on automatically.

You turn it on to high, and voila, the center console goes back into the dash, and it blows to the feet. You press one button, another lights up... when I try to turn off the front defrost, the rear turns on, and I've got to go through a series of pushes to get both on, or off. It seems like it sort of has a life of its own, but I'm not sure if I am missing the way or reason it does what it does, or it's all just sort of random.

I notice the center air console goes down randomly, not really sure when. I think it is the extreme high or low.

Anyone else find it acting a little sassy or odd?

 

I just mash buttons until something starts beeping and counting backwards in German. Just kidding...

Actually, I don't find good reason to mess with the system - I set temperature to what I like and let it have its own way. It does very good job actually keeping it at that temperature, well, unless the top is down. I configured center vent through the menus to be auto and keep everything else on auto, including fan speed.

So it is ON/OFF system as far as I am concerned.

 

It does sometimes have a mind of its own. I've found that it works pretty well in the winter and unobtrusively keeps the cabin cozy. With the top down and in traffic, I'll turn on the AC and set the system to manual so that I can control the fan speed. Just a little cool air takes the edge off when the temp gets into the 90's.

 

I tend to override it most of the time when I want heat. (Cool morning, top down). It defaults to floor only, when I want it out of the vents too. It also tends to turn on A/C when I don't need it, though most cars do that.


With our current weather, climate control is turned off when the top is down. Haven't needed morning heat or afternoon A/C. Nice while it lasts...

 

I found it best to leave it on auto and only adjust the temperature. The more I fiddled with it, the more it did the opposite of what I was needing.

 

OH MAN. It makes me feel so good to read your responses.

It does precisely what I don't want it to do. LOL

It's always fun, because I press something for it to do something, and always encounter an internal "Oh my well that's curious" moment for whatever behaviour it is doing.

Yay. Don't touch it. It's moody.

 

I think the center vent raises when the A/C is trying to cool down the cabin, and it will stay flush when it's warming the cabin (if on auto). Thats why it might pop up and down sometimes depending on inside temperatur vs set temperature vs outside temperature (does it need to cool down or heat up cabin temperature considering the temperature in outdoor air).

Personally I always leave it on auto and just adjust indoor temperature settings. Works great so far with the temperature we have in Norway - and it's very good in keeping the cabin temperature steady.

In the A/C settings in main A/C menu, you can also set the general setting of how quick you want it to reach the temperature set at the dials. That will have an influense of how hard the fan will work on auto settings. I keep mine on "normal", but if I lived somewhere with real warm and sunny weather, I might have preffered the "max" settings, as that would probably help cooling the cabin faster at startup - with increased fan noise as a "downside".

 

Can not get the AC to do the same thing twice.

Random is the perfect word for it.

I was going to post a "How does CC work exactly" but then saw this post.

Has anyone figured out how the system works or are they all pretty much flakey out there.

I was starting to think mine has a problem.

 

Can't say how mine works...only that it keeps me comfortable in any weather. Otherwise, I just focus on driving. Don't really care to know why/when/how the periscope pops up and down. If yours isn't controlling to the specified temp, you should take it in for service.

 

put it on auto, set the temp, and fuggedaboutit. What isn't it doing that you want it to do?

 

+1.

 

When I first got the car I used to try and control it manually. It was all over the place, random hot and cold blasts and I was always messing with the controls - drove me nuts.

Then I tried leaving it on auto and only setting the temperature. Works perfectly like this from 90 degree outside temps down to freezing point - it maintains a perfect temperature in the cabin.

 

Here's why...Lets say its a hot day and you want to raise the vent enclosure to get a max blast of AC into the cabin until the car cools off. This is not a strange desire as often you get into a hot car and you want to cool it off ASAP although you may want the cruise temp to be say 'auto 72' later after the car temp normalizes. My Bentley had a button called "Max Air" that performed this very function. The trouble as it relates to the F is that when you manually need to override the cruising temp, which is daily for me to cool off the hot car, We get silly results that defy expectation.

I challenge you to come up with the repeatable technique to accomplishes this.

 

I live in Houston. Five day forecast is 99, 99, 98, 99, 98.

What seems to work for me is when I get in the car I turn both temps down to low 60's and the fan up high.

After it cools off I turn the temp up to around 70 and the fan down to low.

 

The auto function does this already. The strength at which the fan blows is directly proportional to the temperature delta. My interior reaches a perfectly palatable temperature in 2-3 minutes on 100 degree days, and reaches target temp in ~5 minutes. I never adjust the set temp. I really don't understand what is giving people trouble with this.

 

Same here. South Texas summers. I set it when I bought it and have maybe adjusted it twice a degree or two.

 

Are you assuming that you are getting max air even when the vent is down?
I've done what you are saying but the vent stays down leading me to believe that there is a cooler setting to be had....

I'm operating under the assumption that if the vent is down, I'm not getting max air. I'm I wrong?

Dunno

 

Maybe there is something wrong with your system. The center vent will be in the raised position ANY time the A/C is activated. Assuming you have both the "auto" and "A/C" lights on, there is no explanation for the center vent being down other than a malfunction.

 

That is my experience with the system as well. I have also read (in the manual?) that the center vent whould always be raised when A/C is active to cool the inside temp down.

 

I don't believe that is correct. The vent raises and closes when the system detects it is needed - even with AC enabled.

If the cabin is hot the vent raises to add extra cooling then lowers once the temp has dropped and it needs to maintain a constant temp.

In the winter the vent remains closed even though the AC is on (in auto mode).