May 19th, 2022: The comfort controls of this ’03 are as you would imagine, computer based. As autos of this era have 30-60 individual embedded computers running the show. I’ve never used anything like the AC/Heat/Vent system in this car and found it is really difficult to comprehend. I’ve just about given up trying to understand it, preferring to just live with it and try to adapt to it’s particularities.
When I bought this car in January of 2021, there was a steep learning curve trying to figure out how it works exactly and I felt, eventually, that I had a handle on it. So I spent a spring, summer, fall, and winter with all the weather that nature can through at me trying to understand where to set things and I felt I had it down pat.
And then I traveled to Tucson in November ’21 expecting to stay a few weeks. And the desert SW has the cool night desert and the warm mornings, than the hot afternoons. So the system was getting a work out. And would often just not be settable.
Here’s a shot of the comfort control system:
You can see that it doesn’t have a slider but that knob on the left does most of the work. The display shows outside temp, and turning that left knob sets the cabin temp to where you’d like it. Buttons select AUTO, Recirculate, etc. The other knob is either auto fan speed, or manual fan speed select. Most of the time over the months I could set those on auto and it would output coolish or warmish air to meet the set temp. And strong cold air when it was hot. Pretty neat…if it worked. But often it’s temperamental. 2390, 2700
As it got hotter and hotter in Tucson though, it decided it didn’t want to blow cold air out the middle vents. The one’s most of us like to have blowing on our midsections when it’s over 85 F outside. So for several weeks in Tucson, it just wouldn’t do that. Oh, it would weakly blow out those vents, but strongly blow out of the window vents and the floor vents, just not the middle vents where needed. So I spent hours online trying to figure out if there was something wrong, or if it was meant to do that. Never did get an answer I’d be reasonable to follow up so just let it go.
Here’s a shot of the center of the dash where the temp sensor is. It’s an important element of the system as it’s supposed to let the computer know what the sun is doing and the inside cab temp…but it’s the same sun here in Pahrump at 2700′ elevation as it was in Tucson at 2400′.
It was having trouble operating correctly until now. I’ve moved on to Pahrump and found that boom, it’s working fine now?? I didn’t do anything, it just started working again. Climb into the car when it’s up in the 80’s, rotate the dial to the left (coldest setting) and the fan slowly picks up speed and eventually roars as it’s getting colder. This as the AC system wakes. Like it was before I’d visited Tucson. So nothing wrong with the automatic operation of the vent doors. WTH? Grrr. Can’t, so far, figure out what it’s doing.
I have no idea what, if anything, is wrong with it. Doh!