First let me say that I love my new E46 and this post is in no way a complaint about the climate control system but rather an opportunity for some of you to comment on my obsevations and a request for help in better understanding how to operate the system. I've also already done a search and read many threads about the climate control in the E46, but I'm still confused about some things.
First off that center vent wheel thing has me confused. I understand how it works and why some people feel it to be a good feature, but what I'm asking basically is what is the proper way to use it in conjunction with the AUTO climate control system? Should you just put it on the middle white dash setting?
Why it doesn't make sense to me is because of this: my understanding of how a climate control system should work is like this: you set it for 65 (let say the outside air temp is 36), the system does whatever it takes to get the cabin temperature to 65 degrees and then maintains that temperature. This means it will blow somewhat hot air and when the temp reaches 65 it will slow the velocity of the airflow and moderate the temperature of the air as well in order to comfortably maintain 65 degrees. Am I wrong here?
Therefore if you have it set to AUTO at 65 degrees and you have the center dash vent thing adjusted to full cool or mostly cool, what is the point of that? OK, so the middle airflow won't be as hot as the foot & windshield vents but won't the AUTO program still try to maintain 65 despite the cooler mid level air flow and make the foot and windshield vents blow hotter then would normally be necessary and roast your feet and your forehead in an effort to compensate for the cooler air temp of the center vents? So what you have to do is try to get the center vents to blow air of 65 degrees with the center control vent dial in order to aid the AUTO system to get the cabin temp to what you have set. Only problem is that it's hard to tell exactly what 65 degree air blowing out of the center vents feels like with your hand for a thermometer.
Which leads me to another point. The outside air temp hasn't gotten hotter then say 59 degrees here in the North East so I've been using the AUTO mode but deactivating the AC. Does this confuse the AUTO climate? If I have the AC activated with an outside air temp of 36 degrees and the AUTO set to 65 will having the AC on make the system more effecient and operate better even though one would think that it wouldn't be necessary when the outside air temp is 36 degrees? (Let's just forget about the humidity factor for now). If the outside air temp is below 50 degrees shouldn't the AC not come on automatically since the 50 degree outside air should be cold enough to get the cabin temp to 59 degrees or more without the aid of the AC compressor? (again lets just forget about humidity control for now. If you felt the air was too humid you could then press the AC button and "tell" the climate control system that you want the air to be de-humidified as well)
If I go to manual control I can have complete control over the system, well not exactly but I can get the center vents to exactly the temp I want if I utilize the center vent knob and set the digital temp buttons to a rough estimate of the temp I want the vent air to be. This was fine until I tried to also activate the windshield vents at the same time and the air that blew out of those felt like it was 30 degrees hotter then the air I had coming out of the center vents, and it was the same if I activated the foot vents. Why? Well because I was moderating the center vents with the center vent wheel thing and overriding the climate control dash control buttons. So as soon as I activated the foot or windshield vent the computer saw I had the temp set for 65 degrees and decided that ment I actually wanted 80 degree air blowing out of the windshield and foot vents until it sensed that the cabin had reached the desired 65 degrees. So in this case the center vent control knob is in conflict with the climate control setting of 65 degrees, which is why I feel that you have 2 devices you must manipulate in order to get the cabin temp to the temp you want it to be.
So I basically have 2 temperature controls at any given time. I have the buttons on the climate control panel which controls all the vents and I have the center dial control which can be used to manually control only the center vents and I believe it to also have an effect on the side vents next to the windows as well.
Is there anything I'm missing here? Am I over analyzing the system? I can get the cabin to a temperature I'm comfortable with, so I guess there is no problem with the system as far as I'm concerned but I'm making an observation that in order to get the cabin to the exact temp you find comfortable requires a lot of thought, right?
First off that center vent wheel thing has me confused. I understand how it works and why some people feel it to be a good feature, but what I'm asking basically is what is the proper way to use it in conjunction with the AUTO climate control system? Should you just put it on the middle white dash setting?
Why it doesn't make sense to me is because of this: my understanding of how a climate control system should work is like this: you set it for 65 (let say the outside air temp is 36), the system does whatever it takes to get the cabin temperature to 65 degrees and then maintains that temperature. This means it will blow somewhat hot air and when the temp reaches 65 it will slow the velocity of the airflow and moderate the temperature of the air as well in order to comfortably maintain 65 degrees. Am I wrong here?
Therefore if you have it set to AUTO at 65 degrees and you have the center dash vent thing adjusted to full cool or mostly cool, what is the point of that? OK, so the middle airflow won't be as hot as the foot & windshield vents but won't the AUTO program still try to maintain 65 despite the cooler mid level air flow and make the foot and windshield vents blow hotter then would normally be necessary and roast your feet and your forehead in an effort to compensate for the cooler air temp of the center vents? So what you have to do is try to get the center vents to blow air of 65 degrees with the center control vent dial in order to aid the AUTO system to get the cabin temp to what you have set. Only problem is that it's hard to tell exactly what 65 degree air blowing out of the center vents feels like with your hand for a thermometer.
Which leads me to another point. The outside air temp hasn't gotten hotter then say 59 degrees here in the North East so I've been using the AUTO mode but deactivating the AC. Does this confuse the AUTO climate? If I have the AC activated with an outside air temp of 36 degrees and the AUTO set to 65 will having the AC on make the system more effecient and operate better even though one would think that it wouldn't be necessary when the outside air temp is 36 degrees? (Let's just forget about the humidity factor for now). If the outside air temp is below 50 degrees shouldn't the AC not come on automatically since the 50 degree outside air should be cold enough to get the cabin temp to 59 degrees or more without the aid of the AC compressor? (again lets just forget about humidity control for now. If you felt the air was too humid you could then press the AC button and "tell" the climate control system that you want the air to be de-humidified as well)
If I go to manual control I can have complete control over the system, well not exactly but I can get the center vents to exactly the temp I want if I utilize the center vent knob and set the digital temp buttons to a rough estimate of the temp I want the vent air to be. This was fine until I tried to also activate the windshield vents at the same time and the air that blew out of those felt like it was 30 degrees hotter then the air I had coming out of the center vents, and it was the same if I activated the foot vents. Why? Well because I was moderating the center vents with the center vent wheel thing and overriding the climate control dash control buttons. So as soon as I activated the foot or windshield vent the computer saw I had the temp set for 65 degrees and decided that ment I actually wanted 80 degree air blowing out of the windshield and foot vents until it sensed that the cabin had reached the desired 65 degrees. So in this case the center vent control knob is in conflict with the climate control setting of 65 degrees, which is why I feel that you have 2 devices you must manipulate in order to get the cabin temp to the temp you want it to be.
So I basically have 2 temperature controls at any given time. I have the buttons on the climate control panel which controls all the vents and I have the center dial control which can be used to manually control only the center vents and I believe it to also have an effect on the side vents next to the windows as well.
Is there anything I'm missing here? Am I over analyzing the system? I can get the cabin to a temperature I'm comfortable with, so I guess there is no problem with the system as far as I'm concerned but I'm making an observation that in order to get the cabin to the exact temp you find comfortable requires a lot of thought, right?