[paulc]

The owner's manual says to set the vent and fan speed controls to "auto" and then sellect the temperature that you want. the car will then control the temperature automatically, ie: climate control. When I do this and say, set the temperature to 66 degrees the fan blows at full speed but the air never gets cold. I have to push the air conditioning button to "on" before cold air comes out. That doesn't seem like "climate control" to me. My Explorer regulates both hot and cold air to get to the set temperature with out me having to turn anything else on. I'm wondering is everyone else's IS the same as this?

 

[BoYiE]

you know I'm glad you brought this up because I kinda of forgot about it .. by my A/C does not get to cold .. Maybe I'm not doing somethying right .. any reasons why it does not get really cold?

 

[Petey00]

I think this behavior is just the way it works. It's really not a fully automatic system. You need to have the AC light on ("button pressed").

In terms of AC not cool enough, make sure to use recirculate to have colder air.

 

[saltedeggman]

Originally posted by Petey00:


In terms of AC not cool enough, make sure to use recirculate to have colder air.

never knew that, thx

 

[Daniel]

In order to have the full automatic climate control, you need to set fan speed to auto, the vent position to auto, and A/C to on. Once you have done this, the temperature will change automatically as you adjust the temperature dial. If you set to 80 degree and the car's interior is less than that, you will get heated air. On the other hand, if you set it up 70 and your temperature is higher than that, you will get cold air. You don't need to do anything for the climate control to adjust it from cold to hot, it will do it by itself.
I believe Japanese meant for that A/C to mean that the climate control is on. It does not necessary means cold air. This is just a case of us interpret one term one way while Japanese interpret it another.

 

[antonio]

i thought i was the only one that did not get super cold air out of my IS - i don't find that it gets that cold at all

my civic had colder air

 

[Daniel]

You don't think it is cold? I had to turn my temp up sometimes because it is too cold. I usually set my temp at 75 degree, and this is in So. Cal where temperature can get as high as 100 degree.

 

[antonio]

naah i don't think it is cold at all - i mean it no where near as cold as my civic's AC - I am going to have the dealer look at it - maybe it is defective or something

 

[JW]

Yeah, you should get your climate control checked. In my experience, Toyota's AC's are much better than Honda's AC's.

 

[paulc]

Thanks for the info. I don't have a problem with the actual temperature. When the A/C light is "on" the air is pretty cold.
The thing that bothers me is that the manual doesn't say that the A/C light needs to be "on" for automatic climate control to work. I think that Ford did a better job then Lexus did, my explorer has two diferent buttons, one for true climate control (ie: set the temp and forget) and one for a/c on that overrides all other settings.

 

[Daniel]

Like I said, it is a different interpretation of what A/C means. Lexus's A/C button means you are turning everything on. When that A/C button is not on, it means you are just getting air from outside.
This is true for all Lexus cars, from ES, IS to GS and LS.

 

[pbeekm]

I found that my A/C wasn't as cold as I would have liked and asked the dealer to check the refrigerant level while doing the ECU reprogram & TRAC upgrade. They didn't say what they did, just that "It's full", but it works noticeably better now.

I've done some research since and plan to try a R-134a replacement refrigerant called Cooltop as I'm expecting Summer to overwhelm the A/C with the R-134a.

There's another product, the Smart VOV (variable orifice valve) (more info) that could benefit the A/C significantly as well - it just depends on whether our car's A/C uses the standard orifice tube or VXT or whether it already has something similar to the VOV.

 

[soulstalker]

Well since this topic has been brought back...

The temperature gauge works in automatic mode only when you have the AC in "auto". However if you are manually choosing fan speed, then turn the temperature gauge all the way down, otherwise you will get warmer air. (That temperature gauge is nothing more than a cold/hot regulator found in every car).

I don't even use the "Auto-Mode" because I don't like it when the fan changes to blow at full speed. I always keep it at Low to Medium speed, with the temperature gauge to the coldest setting. To me, this is the best setting... Coldest air flowing gently into the car.

 

[TSoich]

soulstalker wrote:

(That temperature gauge is nothing more than a cold/hot regulator found in every car).

Are you SURE about that? I have no reason to doubt you, I am just surprised that Lexus would do such a thing. I also have noticed that I can get the fan speed to change based on the setting - I assume that it is setting the fan based on the delta between interior temp and the set point (along with some voodoo input from the light sensor on the dash - that part is an assumption based on casual observation).

I will give it a try on the way home tonight to see if I come to the same conclusion on the real function of the temp set point dial.

Thanks for the input
Terry