I have my Climatronic system switched to auto all the time and the temperature set at 21C. The actual temperature in the car seems to vary to me. Sometimes I'm quite cold, especially my hands and the air coming out of the grills feels cool. Other times, like today, it feels too warm and stuffy.

Where are the air temperature sensors and can I check them somehow?

Have you got the air-conditioning on? It is quite possible to have the unit in Auto with the A/C off and like that the cooling will only be effective when it is cold outside.

I believe you have a sunshine sensor on top of the dash just below the windscreen and a temp sensor located in the middle of the centre dial, the small black shiny circle in the middle of it. I'm not suprised you are getting cold hands sometimes and warm at others as it controls not only the cooling from A/C pump but also the heater and will use both to maintain the temp. I don't have the same problem but I have deliberately set all the vents I can adjust so they blow around the car rather than onto me.

Ian

I have the AC on all the time.

I suspect it might be due to the sunshine sensor. As today, it was overcast and the cabin temperature was warm. Other times when it was sunny but cold, the cabin temperature was cold for me, cold hands etc. Perhaps the temp sensor should be in the region of the steering wheel, that's fairly close to where the driver senses the temperature.

Looks like the auto temp control is not too smart. Perhaps I should use manual control as I did years ago. Shame really. :(

It varies the same as it does in your house for example. ie in the winter you wouldn't have your hot water as hot in the summer as you would in the winter because your body is in a different temperature environment. If you kept your shower on 7 on the dial for example it would be the same temperature all year round but unbearable in the summer but just right in the winter!

Same in the car. I usually get too warm on 21 in the winter in the car and set to 19ish......in the summer 19ish is too cold and 20-21 is usually about right....Same temps but your body feels it differently.

am i being silly how to you turn off air con? i have my one on auto all the time

am i being silly how to you turn off air con? i have my one on auto all the time

I see you have an 05 Octy? If so then you should have an ECON button. This turns off the A/C and the climatronic will keep the temp (well try to in the summer!) without the A/C.

The facelift has an A/C button so is a little clearer.

..........and that button is not called Econ for nothing! Airconditioning uses power and therefore fuel!

I rarely have the Econ off and the temperature at around 21 - 22 in the Winter and lower in the warmer weather! Warm me up when it is cold and cool down when it is warm, the opposite to above.....

PS on Auto the system will apply what it needs by way of fan speed, if you adjust the fan yourself you sill see that the Auto goes off and this is my normal too. I also adjust where the air is going, so when I have it set to higher speed and cool temp I may have the vents selected and in when warming usually the screen and floor - only if my hands are cold do I select vents when warming the interior.

I have my Climatronic system switched to auto all the time and the temperature set at 21C. The actual temperature in the car seems to vary to me. Sometimes I'm quite cold, especially my hands and the air coming out of the grills feels cool. Other times, like today, it feels too warm and stuffy.

Where are the air temperature sensors and can I check them somehow?

If it´s very warm outside or hot, 21ºc you get cold air but if it´s less than the set temp. it will seem like warm air, you will have to put it in 19ºc.

In another words, the bigger the dif. between outside temp. and set temp. the colder it seems.

You can also turn it off completely by turning the fan speed dial down to 1 light on, waiting a second or 2 and then turning it down some more which will turn the system off completely, unless you have the climatronic off mod, inwhich case you press the upper segment of the middle dial, just inside the rotating bezel to turn it off.

Ian

The Climatronic on my FL Octy estate doesn't seem as good as the previous 2 pre-FL Octy's I've had. On this one I'm too warm with it set to 20 so I turn it down to 19 but after half an hour I'm feeling cold unless the sun is shining. With the sun out I have to set it to 18 (minimum controlled setting) and still feel too warm. On the the previous 2 cars I had it set to 20 during the winter and about 21.5 in the summer, with no manual fiddling necessary. The pre-FL cars allow 0.5'C increments whereas the FL is just in whole degrees - an unnecessary backward step.

It's as if the climatronic isn't set up quite right on my car. I've also noticed that it cools faster when travelling quickly but at low speed i would have expected it would turn up the fan more to compensate. Yes I have the AC on, with Auto set to the higher fan speed option that you get on FL cars.

I've got a digital themometer which I'm going to put in the car to see how the set value compares to the actual temp.

Checked the temperature inside and found that it settles at 24'C with climatronic set to 20 but 23'C with it set to 19. These temperatures were achieved after about 30mins and then stayed very constant on a long motorway journey. Didn't make any difference whether A/C was on or not - no sun. Today car was standing in sun and showed 29'C on my digital thermometer, switched on and started drivng with A/C on set to 18'C. After about 30mins temperature was 24'C and fan speed had dropped to 2 blobs as it was seemingly happy at that.

Car is in for service on Monday so I've asked them to look at the Climatronic too.

It varies the same as it does in your house for example. ie in the winter you wouldn't have your hot water as hot in the summer as you would in the winter because your body is in a different temperature environment. If you kept your shower on 7 on the dial for example it would be the same temperature all year round but unbearable in the summer but just right in the winter!

Off topic - but that is not quite right :no:

Some simple physics

An electric shower usually has a coarse high & low setting but makes fine adjustments to the temperature by adjusting the water flow which in turn changes the dwell time in the heat exchanger. In winter the incoming water is colder than in summer so needs a longer time in the heat exchanger to raise it to the correct temperature. If the incoming water is 5C and your setting 7 allows a 35C temperature rise then that gives a comfortable 40C shower. In summer the incoming water may be 10-12C giving shower temperature on 7 of 45-47C

Another effect is the room temperature - in winter it will be lower than summer - the shower sprayed water has a huge surface area so significant cooling takes place. The temperature drop from shower head to you is greater when the bathroom is cold.

The overall effect is that you need to heat the water more in winter than in summer so the water is at a comfortable temperature when it hits your body

I think it's something to do with the black knob in the centre of the dashboard. It seems to be some kind of sunshine detector? Maybe looking at predicting solar gain. Thus when it's sunny it turns the heat down a bit predicting the heat from the sunshine.

My feeling is that I get cold on cold sunny days but am OK on cold cloudy days.

Does anybody actually know the logic behind the climatronic control please?

Off topic - but that is not quite right :no:

Some simple physics

An electric shower usually has a coarse high & low setting but makes fine adjustments to the temperature by adjusting the water flow which in turn changes the dwell time in the heat exchanger. In winter the incoming water is colder than in summer so needs a longer time in the heat exchanger to raise it to the correct temperature. If the incoming water is 5C and your setting 7 allows a 35C temperature rise then that gives a comfortable 40C shower. In summer the incoming water may be 10-12C giving shower temperature on 7 of 45-47C

Another effect is the room temperature - in winter it will be lower than summer - the shower sprayed water has a huge surface area so significant cooling takes place. The temperature drop from shower head to you is greater when the bathroom is cold.

The overall effect is that you need to heat the water more in winter than in summer so the water is at a comfortable temperature when it hits your body

I know but its a similar thing to heating a car.....anyway my shower is temp controlled (ie you set the dial in degrees C) which is what i based it on - ie 36-37C is lovely in the winter but unbearable in the summer

I think it's something to do with the black knob in the centre of the dashboard. It seems to be some kind of sunshine detector? Maybe looking at predicting solar gain. Thus when it's sunny it turns the heat down a bit predicting the heat from the sunshine.

My feeling is that I get cold on cold sunny days but am OK on cold cloudy days.

Does anybody actually know the logic behind the climatronic control please?

Yes, there have been posts about this before I believe, the thing that looks like a trim piece in the centre of the dashboard just below the windscreen is a sunshine detector and the temp sensor is the small shiny black piece in the centre of the fan speed dial.

Ian

Desperate times

I've been reading the manual.

It appears that there are two positions for auto, High and Low. There are two warning leds in the auto switch, the left one is Low the right is High. Mine was set on low which reduces the fan output apparently.

I shall see how I get on with the High position. This test may take a little while as the warmer weather seems to have arrived.

It appears that there are two positions for auto, High and Low. There are two warning leds in the auto switch, the left one is Low the right is High. Mine was set on low which reduces the fan output apparently.

I shall see how I get on with the High position.

The default seems to be the high position. IIRC the manual refers to using the low position if the fan is too noisy. I can not hear the fan unless the full demist is selected.

The fan speed automatically drops pretty quickly unless it is very cold or sunny and warm. 22°C automatic for me 99% of the time.

Edited 8 April, 201115 yr by gregoir