I use my vRS for Track Days, and while at Donington last Sunday, even though the weather was very cold it was getting very hot in the cabin. I turned the heater down, still hot. I turned it to the coolest setting, (air-conditioning, removed) still heater, pumping out hot air.

 

any ideas how I can rectify this problem?

A month ago I replaced the heater matrix on my climatronic. The whole system has four flaps inside, one for the recirculation, two directional and one for hot/cold. This particular flap is a piece of metal with big holes. It is supposed to be covered with foam, so the holes aren't affecting the air flow. In my case, the foam was, ehmmm, not there anymore. It was totally disintegrated. The result was the air passing through the flap and it always passed through the heater matrix. So, always warm air was coming from the vents. 

 

Also, would check the servo of this flap (if climatronic) or the cold/hot switch's cable (if standard heater). 

Thanks for that. It is climate control. I will have a look. Open to any other hints as well of course.

 

Cheers.

3 minutes ago, phazed said:

Thanks for that. It is climate control. I will have a look. Open to any other hints as well of course.

 

Cheers.

Is the outside temperature sensor working correctly? It may be "a luxury" on a track day car, but even without "the rest of the a/c", the heater will try and give you warmer air if this sensor reads low.

It certainly was hanging in the inner wing exposed to the cold air through the nearside, lower vent or thereabouts.

 

The heater was working fine during last year, as I did 13 Track Days, mostly with the heater in the off position.

 

I removed the air-conditioning, a couple of years ago, when I first got the car as it wasn’t working! I sometimes regret that, especially when the weather has been so hot in the summer. Too late now!

Another thing to check is the built in diagnostics for the climate control:

 

Depending what that shows you can also access individual values for various sensors etc:

 

1 hour ago, phazed said:

It certainly was hanging in the inner wing exposed to the cold air through the nearside, lower vent

Right location, but that doesn't mean it's outputting the correct temperature. Hence the question and explanation upthread.

I did as described in the video and this code came up.
 

4F7. I then scrolled up and the figures, 318 appeared.

 

Does anyone know what this means?

4F7 is a hexadecimal code that converts to 01271 in decimal, info here to get you along the path, hope it helps - http://wiki.ross-tech.com/wiki/index.php/01271

Thanks for that.

 

Will have a look tomorrow.

On 30/01/2023 at 12:52, makymak said:

A month ago I replaced the heater matrix on my climatronic. The whole system has four flaps inside, one for the recirculation, two directional and one for hot/cold. This particular flap is a piece of metal with big holes. It is supposed to be covered with foam, so the holes aren't affecting the air flow. In my case, the foam was, ehmmm, not there anymore. It was totally disintegrated. The result was the air passing through the flap and it always passed through the heater matrix. So, always warm air was coming from the vents. 

 

Also, would check the servo of this flap (if climatronic) or the cold/hot switch's cable (if standard heater). 

Got a track day next Monday, so car has sat in the garage with other projects taking my attention . Can I access these flats easily enough? What is the best way to check please?

No, you can't access them easily. They are inside the a/c box. You have to remove the dash, the main console and four bolts from the engine compartment side that hold the a/c box. Then you have to drill some holes to remove a metal plate so you can bend the base that holds the glove box (if you go the official way) or remove the whole dash strut. Then, you have to strip the actual a/c box. Plenty of work and time. 

 

Are you sure the temperature flap servo (V68) works ok? The error displayed is exactly that servo motor. And it's ages more easy to replace the servo than to inspect (and repair if necessary) the flaps. 

Just had a little poke around as I haven’t used the car since the last track day.

 

Took off the plastic cover under the fan motor, which revealed pretty much nothing apart from the fan, ran the fan up and put it all back together.

 

For some reason it now all works perfectly. I guess either a stuck flap or a dodgy servo motor. When you use the hot and cold buttons to adjust temperature, you can hear various things moving internally so I assume all is okay for now.

 

Doing Bedford Autodrome next Monday so fingers crossed I can turn the heating down once it gets warm in the cabin. Believe me, it was super hot last month, even in January at full chat…