It is only during this colder spell that I have noticed once the car engine is warm there is a steady flow of hot air into the foot wells. This is without the a/c on. I assume this is the norm and now explains why at times the cabin was too warm during the summer. By the way without resorting to manual how do I change clock time.

HZ...that's not normal to get the steady flow of warm air into the foot wells. Does that happen even with the heat control in the cold position? My Fab doesn't do that. You may have a problem with a sticking open vent control valve/flap. Worth investigating.

Clock...just turn the little sticky out long button thingy on the instrument panel directly in front of you either to the left for forwarding the hours...and to the right to forward the minutes - you don't push the button at all for clock alterations. I'm talking about the button you normally push to change from trip to car total mileage.

Edited 25 November, 200817 yr by Estate Man

Yes it seems a steady stream of hot air (just like me) and as I have a 3 it does not have a hot/cold seting it is a chosed on the LED sceen. Thanks for the clock diirections I will brave the elements and do it now.

The climate on the 3 does tend to heat the floor first on Auto setting (as heat rises).

Have you tried selecting the upwards direction button to see if the heat still comes out the floor vents? I would have thought that if you still get heat to the floor when you've manually selected a direction other than the floor then something is probably wrong.

I tend to keep mine on Auto with Econ to keep the A/C off most of the time.

If I get very light mist on the front screen I hit the upwards direction button (still with A/C off) and then go to Auto with A/C on if the windows mist up more.

Never had any problems with heat to the floor in the summer.

So the heater works without the a/c on to a degree? Running from LGW-LHR this after the a/c was off but there was a very warm stream of air via the footwell vents. I put on a/c to cool and for what was left of the journey (4 miles) there was a stream of cool air even after the a/c was switched off. Am I to assume that whatever the controls were left at there will still be a residual warm/cool stream of air?

Ok, I believe you have this control unit:

In which case, I'll run through how I use it (probably quicker than the manual!).

I set the temperature normally to about 21C and leave it there. Very rare I need to touch this.

In normal conditions, I leave it on Auto and Econ, i.e. automatically heats/cools the cabin to the selected temperature without using A/C.

If it's particularly warm or if it's raining and am having problems with the windows misting up, I'll switch the Econ off (A/C on).

So far this winter I have also been trying keeping the A/C off but using the upward direction button - see below:

This works well if it's cold but dry. If it's raining then I really need the A/C on to keep the windows clear.

From what I remember of the similar looking module in a Galaxy a few years ago, I think it was programmed so that if it needed to heat the cabin, it would aim warm air at the floor first so that it didn't mist the screen and then once warm air actually started to come out, it would aim it at floor and screen.

If it needed to cool the cabin, it generally used the face vents with some to the floor.

I think the Fabia works the same, unless you manually select a direction.

The A/C switch (Econ switch) I believe just switches the A/C on or off. You can heat the cabin with or without and it doesn't make any difference that I've noticed to the heating (obviously makes a big difference if you're cooling the cabin though!)

Hope this post is helpful.

Steve

ps Just noticed on these pics that it warmed up quick outside - 10.5C to 11.5C in less than a minute!!!