[dransfield]

I've complained on here before about the climate control logic on my 2008 convertible, but spoke to soembody recently who had just bought a similar car, whose climate control did the same things mine did, and he just assumed it was a fault and was going to take it back to the dealer to have it fixed.

Here's a specific example: If you have air feeding to the "screen" (so top third of the direction control has a green LED), pressing that button does not switch it off. This is contrary to what happens in the other 2 thirds (face vents and floor).

Generally:
1)When I get in the car first thing in the morning, it switches to auto with a high fan speed. I then have to turn the fan down, but not too far or the heated seat won't work, so it has to be done by eye rather than by feel. And it takes three twists of the knob to do this because of the way its geared.
2) If you press the screen button all sorts of other settings change (aircon on, fan high). I think if you press it again things calm down. My V70 Volvo does a similar thing. Oh, for the days of manual controls, when you could just have fresh (unairconned or fanned) air trickling up the screen.
3) If the temp setting is on the coldest setting, when I raise the hood the fan goes ballistic.

Does this sound normal, or should I be getting it 'fixed'?

Dransfield

 

[alan6]

All quite normal.

With the roof down it's a manual system without any air con cooling of the air. Roof up it's back to full ACC.

Pressing the screen ( top segment ) switches on demist so you get dried air with higher fan speed to demist the screen.

If you have temp set on minimum it will cool the air as much as it can and turn the fan up to max.

The system is automatic and will do it's best to get the interior of the car to the temperature YOU have selected on the dial as quickly as it can.

I'm not 100% sure but I think if the temp is set to min you get max cooling of the air and the fan will stay on full all the time and the same if the temp is set to max ie max heat and fan on full until the temp dial is moved off either extreme.

If you go into the climate control settings you can alter the maximun fan speed.

Alan

 

[dransfield]

All quite normal.

With the roof down it's a manual system without any air con cooling of the air. Roof up it's back to full ACC.

Pressing the screen ( top segment ) switches on demist so you get dried air with higher fan speed to demist the screen.

If you have temp set on minimum it will cool the air as much as it can and turn the fan up to max.

The system is automatic and will do it's best to get the interior of the car to the temperature YOU have selected on the dial as quickly as it can.

I'm not 100% sure but I think if the temp is set to min you get max cooling of the air and the fan will stay on full all the time and the same if the temp is set to max ie max heat and fan on full until the temp dial is moved off either extreme.

If you go into the climate control settings you can alter the maximun fan speed.

Alan[/b]

But what about when you press Auto once (and Auto comes on) and then press it again repeatedly and Auto doesn't go off?
Same for the 'top segment', you press it once and the demist does everything it can to demist (fast fan, aircon on), and then press it again and it calms down, but that top segment stays on no matter how many times you press it. The only way I've found to switch the top segmentoff is to press Auto (ie. the computer decides it wants to switch off the top segment. It won't switch off for the human.) and then go through resetting all the things that Auto changes (fan speed, aircon, etc.) It's a complete faff! Its so much of a faff I still think mine might be broken as I can't believe you all are happy with your cars doing this!
Machines should do what we want. Its nice when they do things to help, like try to demist the screen asap with one touch, but they shouldn't ignore our command!

I spend a rediculous amount of time with my eyes off the road in this car, resetting the climate control on this car, seeing if it's ignored my request.
My previous car was a 1992 MX5 with aircon and manual ventilation controls.
It was brilliant: Most of the time I didn't touch the controls: Temp set to cold, aircon off, fresh air trickling up the screen, fan off or first notch. If it was hot I'd use the aircon, if it was fumey I'd use recirc, but that was it. You hardly had to touch it, and when you did you could do it without taking your eyes off the road. But with this Saab it's like I have to do a preflight check before every time I set off to set the climate control.

And then there's the 'slow as an ox' electronics.....

 

[alan6]

Ok I have one gripe about the system. It's the fan will stay at the speed it's on when you lower the roof. ie. you start the car on a hot day, you get the high fan speed to cool the car and it stays on high speed when the roof goes down.

Most of the time I don't alter the settings ( apart from turning the fan down as above ).
With the roof up I have the temp set on 20 and leave it on auto.
Warm days with the roof down I leave the temp on 20, fan off and turn off air to feet and dash vents. There will still be a little warmed air coming through the screen vents but you won't notice it.
Roof down in winter or cold evenings I turn on the air to feet and dash vents put fan on about 1/3rd speed and turn the temp up to 24 or 26.

When it's in full auto it will get to the temperature you have set it for as fast as it can by altering the amount of water going through the heater matrix and fan speed.

In winter in your MX5 I bet you put the temp to the max and turned the fan up then when you got the interior warm enough you turned the fan down and turned the temp down. The Saab ACC does this for you.

In summer in the MX5 you turned the temp dial to min, in the Saab you don't need to do this just turn off air to the vents.

As I said above when the roof is up the system will alter things as it needs to keep the interior at the temp you have on the dial but when the roof is down the temp dial works more like the temp control in a non ACC car, turn it down and it cuts down the amount it allows through the heater matrix, turn it up and it lets more through.

Alan

 

[cliffhanger]

But what about when you press Auto once (and Auto comes on) and then press it again repeatedly and Auto doesn't go off? .....


I spend a rediculous amount of time with my eyes off the road in this car, resetting the climate control on this car, seeing if it's ignored my request.
My previous car was a 1992 MX5 with aircon and manual ventilation controls.[/b]

I can see you problem. You had a car with Aircon (AC), but now you have one with Auto Climate Control (ACC). On the MX5 you were turning the aircon compressor on and off by hand. You can't do that with Climate so easily (though there should be an AC on/off button too?).

With Climate, it's normal if you've made any manual air flow settings to cancel these by hitting Auto before changing to another manual setting. Personally mine stays on Auto 95% of the time, and I just adjust the temperature to suit - simple.

 

[alan6]

But what about when you press Auto once (and Auto comes on) and then press it again repeatedly and Auto doesn't go off?

That's right it's an ON button not an OFF button and puts the ACC in full auto mode.

Same for the 'top segment', you press it once and the demist does everything it can to demist (fast fan, aircon on), and then press it again and it calms down, but that top segment stays on no matter how many times you press it. The only way I've found to switch the top segmentoff is to press Auto (ie. the computer decides it wants to switch off the top segment. It won't switch off for the human.)

That's right it's another ON button not an OFF button. Press once you are telling it you want extra air to screen and extra fan speed press twice you are telling it extra air to screen no extra fan speed.

and then go through resetting all the things that Auto changes (fan speed, aircon, etc.)

And by doing that you are switching OFF the full auto mode of your ACC but it will still try to keep the interior at the temp you are asking for with fan speed etc you have set but it will struggle if the outside air temp is 30C and you set the dial at 20 and air con off.

It's a complete faff! Its so much of a faff I still think mine might be broken as I can't believe you all are happy with your cars doing this!

It's not broken and yes I'm happy with the way mine keeps the interior warm or cool regardless of the outside temperature. I could get in the car in the south of France with the temperature up at 35C and drive to the Alps where the temp is -5C and not touch a dial on the heating system would your MX5 do that?? ( well the tin top boys could do it I would have the top down all the way lol ).

Why not try letting it do the work for you for a few days, set the temp dials to around 20, if the tops down turn off the fan and vents, top up let it control things on it's own in auto.

Alan

 

[Paul B]

Like cliffhanger says with ACC just set the temps, sit back and forget it unless you need to demist. The system on the convertible will go to manual temp control on a scale of 1-10 when the roof is down, AC will be off otherwise it'll try to cool the full atmosphere. There is an AC off button, when you press it the light will come on to signify that the AC is off.
If your car is warm and the ACC temp is set low then the fans will go ballistic trying to cool the interior, best to temporarily increase the temps at this point.