hello

i have an octavia face lift 2009 with automatic air condition

i need to activate the recirculated air mode while the fan is off

is it possible

Maybe leave the fan on very low? It's pretty much silent on the lowest setting anyway and you won't feel any air blowing unless you have the dashboard vents on.

It the button with a curved arrow, the long bottom button above the dials.

Or if you have climate control the button with a car on it, It's on the top row of buttons & is one in from the right, that's according to the manual I've just downloaded anyway!

If the fan is off, then all circulation flaps should be closed.

This is the same as the wife's GTI, it won't let you activate recirc when the climate is turned off. By memory, if off, it stays in fresh mode. On top of that, I remember seeing lots of complaints on VW forums about hot air flowing in while the climate is turned off, not sure if the Octy does the same? We leave our climate turned on all the time anyways.

that's exactly the same complain i am having with my octy Pinzvidz

that's why i want to activate the reciculation while the AC is off

If you basically want to shut the ventilation off , close the individual dash vents, press the recirculate button and manually turn the fan speed to minimum or off if possible.

Just guessing here.

No idea why you would want to do this and not leave the system on auto at your preferred temperature or ditto on recirculate.

I need fresh air to breathe and it may be considered dangerous to seal oneself into a closed car.

amnot trying to seal myself in a closed car i just want to prevent the hot air coming from the engine from geting in the car causing fogging to my windshield that's all

I have been asked by 3 friends to solve this 'problem'. They have to drive past a farm on their way to work. The smell is so bad you want to puke.

For the first one, I fitted a changeover switch that feeds the recirc flap control wires. The pushed in position has the close flap wire tied high and in the out position the wires are connected to the controller as before.

For the other two, I got inventive and added a relay circuit so the switch is ignored when the fan is on.

amnot trying to seal myself in a closed car i just want to prevent the hot air coming from the engine from geting in the car causing fogging to my windshield that's all

Surely, you want air to come in to keep the windscreen clear. I don't understand.

1. If you want to keep a pong out of the car, press the recirculate button before reaching the pong. That's it. Switch back to fresh air when pong is passed.

2. To prevent misting up you need fresh,warm, preferably de-humidified air, to come through the screen vents.Difficult to avoid the laws of physics.Leaving the system on automatic at a comfortable temperature or hitting the demist button would seem to be sensible.

Recirculating the air is not an effective way of demisting a car. I remember the days before fresh air vents and I had to wipe the condensation from the screen as I drove along.:rotz:

I think you can get bad air quality in the car when driving with the recirc for longer periods. CO2 value could get high and lead to fatigue.

If the OP is using his car in Egypt I'm pretty amazed the air con isn't on out of necessity anyway... But then anything over 16 C is too hot by my standards...

2. To prevent misting up you need fresh,warm, preferably de-humidified air, to come through the screen vents.Difficult to avoid the laws of physics.Leaving the system on automatic at a comfortable temperature or hitting the demist button would seem to be sensible.

This is good advice.

Just to add to this discussion, using recirc doesn't completely cut out fresh air. It will still allow 5%, maybe 10% fresh air in. Most manufacturers do this on purpose so ppl who use recirc all the time don't severely degrade their air quality inside the vehicle to a point where they become fatigued.

We use recirc all the time, there's nothing worse than choking on fumes from a vehicle in front of you, especially if it's an old POS that blows massive amounts of blue smoke. Even if we're following new cars, I'd RATHER be not breathing in carbon monoxide and and other nasties that a catalytic converter doesn't completely kill off. Fair enough, the point I made above will let in a little, but now a lot.

Recirc will only wirk with the fan on, with the fan off there is no circulation of air, from anywhere!

It works with the Climate control in economy mode - which is actually AC off, but fan on.

Fogging up of the screen will occur more readily with recirculated air.

The air enteringt he cabin, on outsode air setting, is not warmed by the engine, indeed passes nowhere near it, coming in through the scuttle panel (behind the wipers).It is only warmed if the temperature is set above ambient (probably rare in Egypt!) and then by a mini-radiator in the heater box - with the air passed over it from fresh, OR recirculated. Therefore where the air comes from is irrelevant to its warming by the system.

If your problem is with ambient (i.e. from outside) air entering the car and fogging the screen then the only answer is to have the AC on. Recirculated air is from the outside, but then passed round and round and round again, getting more humid and lower in Oxygen all the time. The need to have the 5% ambient stil entering is to prevent death!

Gregoir is right, I don't understand rwbaldwin's 'cure' at all as none is needed! Simply understanding what reciruclation does and usingt he controls appropriatley is all you need to do! I regularly travel through the Tyne Tunnel, which is often extremely 'thick' with exhaust fumes, all I do is switch on the recirc and econ modes.