Climatronic - auto - Cold air at level 3 when start :(

[xcyber]

Is there something wrong with my climatronic?

Always when I start the car and I have the climatronic on auto it starts to blow cold air at level 3 so I have to turn it off untill the car is hot..

Anyone have the same problem?

[gadgetman]

It's normal, they all do it.

[Silv1983]

It's cold because you just started the car..... the filaments haven't had time to warm up.

Only in prestige cars does it work straight away.

[newbie69]

Is there something wrong with my climatronic?

Always when I start the car and I have the climatronic on auto it starts to blow cold air at level 3 so I have to turn it off untill the car is hot..

Anyone have the same problem?

Keep it turned off for the first say 5 minutes, until the temperature gauge is half-way to the top. Then turn it on and it will blow hot air straight out. Also, the temperature will rise a lot quicker If you start the car and drive right away, leaving it in idle will not help as opposed to older cars.

[Babs]

It's blowing cold air because it has no way of blowing hot air, because the engine is cold.

Your car heater works by pushing engine coolant into a heater matrix. This is like the radiator in the front of the car. The blower motor sits behind this and blows through it, towards the cabin. if the engine is cold, it means the coolant is cold, and thus the heater matrix is cold so no hot air can be blown.

This is perfectly normal behaviour of every car I've ever driven - is this your first car?

[xman]

Is there something wrong with my climatronic?

Always when I start the car and I have the climatronic on auto it starts to blow cold air at level 3 so I have to turn it off untill the car is hot..

Anyone have the same problem?

Its because the software in the climate unit is crap. I have the same problem. 1st thing in the morning I have a constant battle - it insists on ramping up to level 3 (medium gale force) and even 5 (severe gale force)when there is no heat available yet from the engine. Even setting to level 0 it will decide to ramp up. Again and again. ... And then when it finally gets warm, it'll ramp down to level 1 even though I turn it up to level 2 or 3. The fan control is stupidly sensitive, many time I touch it and it will jump 3 even 5 notches. Middle of last winter to have the unit insist on blowing an artic gale in my face every morning - came close to me put my fist through the damn unit.

I complained - they said nothing wrong - supposedly changed the unit when I said it often changes speed the wrong way round when I adjust i.e. try to turn down the speed and it shoots up instead. But the new unit is exactly the same.

Total crap - I had a similar though less severe problem in my Alhambra climate unit. Its my no.1 complaint about the Fabia. Made worse by an exceptionally loud whiny fan.

And having the words MANUAL and AUTO appear simulutaneously.....welll thats just plain stupid (theyre all like that apparently)

It ignores your setting when you switch off - it starts up every morning wanting to fast freeze you.

Software written by idiots.

Just ordered an Octavia - climate was NOT on the long list of options ordered.

Edited 17 November, 2011 by xman

[blueR36]

The climate on the Octavia ( well m2 anyway ) is different, very slow or non existent fan speed till warm, only ever high on windscreen defrost , my father-in-law has a Fabia m2 Top model, and always has climate off as the fan speed drowns out his radio 4!

[Guest]

Hi xman, you'll love the Octavia. My sis had a 1.9PD for years and she loved it. The new one's are even better of course. A good solid motor and a class leader. What are you getting, petrol or diesel?

[runboy]

It's cold because you just started the car..... the filaments haven't had time to warm up.

Only in prestige cars does it work straight away.

I think what the OP was trying to get at is the fan speed. It's like a desk fan in the summer - the air temp is warm but the effect of blowing fast air over your skin has a cooling affect. The climate in the Fabia comes on a fair high fan speed despite there being no warm air to heat the interior. I find that increasing the temp level just increases the fan speed. It must be down to simple logic in the climate software that doesn't cater for the engine to take a few mins to warm up.

Yes you can turn off the climate until the engine is warm but surely the point of climate control is to do the best it can with whatever cooling/warming source it has - just because the engine is cold doesn't mean that it should keep the fan speed up and therefore adding to the cooling affect rather than reducing the fan speed to nil where you will at least feel as "warm" as the atmosphere and not have cold air blasted at at you. I can save some money and just have the standard heater controls in that case.

However in the summer climate control is great and once the engine is warm enough to provide hot air then the climate works nicely, moderating the heat to a comfortable level, so it's not all bad.

[logiclee]

Yep as said whoever wrote the software wants sacking.

Other climate systems monitor engine water temperature and thus know what heat is available in the heater matrix and only ramp the fan speed up when it's worth doing.

And the Fabia2 has a frustrating wheezy sound on fan speed 2 or above. When we picked the TSi up I actually took it back and complained there was something stuck somewhere, but yes it seems they are all like that. The Fabia 1 didn't have the same issue.

Cheers

Lee

[xman]

Fabia CC :no:

Typical journey tonight - 3 miles to station and 3 miles back. 8 deg C damp and cold. Start car - fan off as I left it (pot luck it usually turns itself on to between 2 and 4).

Keep fan off for 1st mile until blue engine cold light goes out.

Turn the knob delicately one notch, nope fan speed immediately goes to 2 ECON (manual) selected

Turn down to fanspeed 1 - 30 seconds later its gone to fan speed 2, turn down again.

Within a minute its up to fan speed 3! Turn down to fan speed 2.

After a minute I turn the temp control up 0.5 deg, fan speed goes up, I turn fan speed down to 2.

Over the next minute the fan speed goes down to 1, so i turn it up to 2,it repeats this behaviour 3 more times by which time I arrive at the station and switch off the engine.

Spent more time looking at the CC panel than at the road!!

Pick up son and start up - fan speed 2 and drive all the way home at fan speed 2 - wow! its behaving itself, but as I approach home I notice the mpg is down on what it should be. Look at the CC panel and ECON is not displayed - yes the little ****** has turned on the compressor against my wishes. No wonder it was starting to feel chilly on the way home.

Many more moans - mainly noise and poor mpg. Needless to say, totally ****ed off with Mk2 fabias.

If I could swap this car without losing mega money I would. Dealer offered me only £4700 part ex value - 26 months old FSH pristine 13,000 mile Fabia 2, 1.2,metallic,function pack,(leather pack,cc,elec windows all round, parking sensors,door bump strips) I paid £10,500 for it. :wonder:

Buying an 1.2Tsi Octavia SE for my son because of grandkids. His Mk 1 Fabia 1.2 (great car) is on 120k and needed as daughter in laws replacement car. I hope the Octavia doesnt turn out to be a disappointment too.

Edited 17 November, 2011 by xman

[blueR36]

Private sale you should get £6000 for it, my father-in-law bought a Fabia M2, spec 2 for £8200 on a 57 plate 18 months ago , low miles and good nick, so shows you would be daft to chop it in for that

[logiclee]

Private sale you should get £6000 for it, my father-in-law bought a Fabia M2, spec 2 for £8200 on a 57 plate 18 months ago , low miles and good nick, so shows you would be daft to chop it in for that

Just bought a 2009 Fabia 1.2 12V 2, 9700 miles, parking sensors + Bluetooth + bumstrips + mats/flaps, one owner, Skoda main dealer sale, same Skoda main dealer original supplier and servicer, approved Skoda used car, 12 months warranty and RAC, serviced + free MOT for £6500.

I'd expect trade-in on that to be around £4750-£5000.

Private sale I'd have thought £5250-£5500 for xman's car.

VAT deals have driven down second hand prices recently apart from sought after models like vRS, TSi DSG, GL11 etc.

The Fabia used to have the best semi auto climate system on the market, the Climatic. You set the temperature and the car keeps it constant but you manually control the direction of air and fan speed. Brilliant, effective, simple and used across VAG. Fitted in midrange Fabia's from the first Mk1 until last year. Really bugged me we got it in the 2009 2 but not the 2011 SE.

Cheers

Lee

Edited 18 November, 2011 by logiclee

[daydotz]

Has anyone else noticed problems with the direction of heat in auto I only seem to get warm air though my drivers side vent at the moment ?

[KenONeill]

General points - Babs is correct that no car except those with electric cabin heaters (oh and Tatras with petrol cabin heaters) can give you hot air the instant you switch on from cold. IME Climatronic starts on 2(of 8) in auto mode. If it "forgets" your settings, that's an issue with the controller chip's stable RAM.

Cold select on intial startup gives you the fastest demist until hot air is available.

Daydotz - If you've got all vents open, try some Climatronaerobics; with a hot engine, press all the buttons semi-randomly for 2 or 3 minutes, then make your preferred selections.

[KTI]

Turn down to fanspeed 1 - 30 seconds later its gone to fan speed 2, turn down again.

Within a minute its up to fan speed 3! Turn down to fan speed 2.

After a minute I turn the temp control up 0.5 deg, fan speed goes up, I turn fan speed down to 2.

Hmmm... Different system in the GB? Climatronis stays at what ever manual setting I set, even after restart... But I don't mess with temp settings as that will obviously mess up fan speed at this stage...

Can't say a loud fan at low temp when starting car would be my main reason to change car though. Maybe might change my mind when it actually gets cold like -20 to -30ºCelsius... though I think battery quality would be primary concern at that stage. I just leave it at auto and it seems to work fine here in the arctic.

Edited 18 November, 2011 by KTI