Climate Control Not Behaving as Expected

[Darthus]

I've never owned a car with auto climate control before, but it seems to be behaving counter-intuitively. If the car is very hot inside (as in sitting out in the sun), and it's set to 72 degrees, it behaves as expected, starts pumping out cool air. However if it's maybe 74 outside and I'm driving down the freeway, with my climate set to 71, I actually start to get quite hot, as barely any air is coming out, and I'm getting hit by the sun.

My wife is someone who can't tolerate a "stuffy" feeling in enclosed spaces, so it's pretty frequent when she's in the car that even if it's cool outside (say in the 60s), if it's 72 inside, she'll feel it's stuffy because there's no airflow. And I can turn her side down to 58 degrees and still barely any air is coming out, so she dives into the climate button, turns up the fan, but it's actually sending out hot air, to her feet for example.

Anyone else feel like it behaves a bit oddly or am I missing something in terms of how this system should work?

I'm used to just having air blowing at a certain amount and adjusting the hot or coldness of it based on the outside temperature. I also usually recycled inside air, so I'm not smelling exhaust etc, but the car seems to almost always default to pulling external air, unless it's trying to aggressively cool the car.

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[kperalta]

I've never owned a car with auto climate control before, but it seems to be behaving counter-intuitively. If the car is very hot inside (as in sitting out in the sun), and it's set to 72 degrees, it behaves as expected, starts pumping out cool air. However if it's maybe 74 outside and I'm driving down the freeway, with my climate set to 71, I actually start to get quite hot, as barely any air is coming out, and I'm getting hit by the sun.

My wife is someone who can't tolerate a "stuffy" feeling in enclosed spaces, so it's pretty frequent when she's in the car that even if it's cool outside (say in the 60s), if it's 72 inside, she'll feel it's stuffy because there's no airflow. And I can turn her side down to 58 degrees and still barely any air is coming out, so she dives into the climate button, turns up the fan, but it's actually sending out hot air, to her feet for example.

Anyone else feel like it behaves a bit oddly or am I missing something in terms of how this system should work?

I'm used to just having air blowing at a certain amount and adjusting the hot or coldness of it based on the outside temperature. I also usually recycled inside air, so I'm not smelling exhaust etc, but the car seems to almost always default to pulling external air, unless it's trying to aggressively cool the car.

I've given up on it, I just manually control it now. When it's on auto it just blows way to hard no matter what, and never calms down.

 

[domm92]

I've never owned a car with auto climate control before, but it seems to be behaving counter-intuitively. If the car is very hot inside (as in sitting out in the sun), and it's set to 72 degrees, it behaves as expected, starts pumping out cool air. However if it's maybe 74 outside and I'm driving down the freeway, with my climate set to 71, I actually start to get quite hot, as barely any air is coming out, and I'm getting hit by the sun.

My wife is someone who can't tolerate a "stuffy" feeling in enclosed spaces, so it's pretty frequent when she's in the car that even if it's cool outside (say in the 60s), if it's 72 inside, she'll feel it's stuffy because there's no airflow. And I can turn her side down to 58 degrees and still barely any air is coming out, so she dives into the climate button, turns up the fan, but it's actually sending out hot air, to her feet for example.

Anyone else feel like it behaves a bit oddly or am I missing something in terms of how this system should work?

I'm used to just having air blowing at a certain amount and adjusting the hot or coldness of it based on the outside temperature. I also usually recycled inside air, so I'm not smelling exhaust etc, but the car seems to almost always default to pulling external air, unless it's trying to aggressively cool the car.

at the top of the screen when you hit climate it says a/c and next to it it says on/off. When you want heat I believe you make sure a/c is switched off and when you want cold air make sure you have a/c on.

It could be confusing to some people because there's a hard button by the auto knob that says on off. Just make sure when you hit the climate button look at the top of the screen and make sure a/c is switched on. Hope this helps.

 

[dick w]

ECON changes how closely it tries to hold to the setpoint--it will vary further in ECON. ECON also seems to greatly increase the amount of time, when cooling, that it stays in recirc. (I'm not sure it ever left recirc when I was running ECON. Personally, I'd prefer it only recirc when all else fails.) The sun sensor also seems to greatly effect what it does. I've seen it change fan speed and recirc twice in an S-curve toward the sun, away from the sun, and back toward the sun. The obtrusiveness of auto climate control is my 2nd least favorite thing so far about the Civic, behind the brain-damaged way it plays USB "random in folder". This is our fourth car with auto climate. In the others, one an Acura, you never really needed to know it was there. This one is obviously changing something in how it is operating almost constantly.

 

[TyBu]

Miles better than the climate control in my Ford was. That said, I'd probably prefer a knob for fan speed and one for temperature...

 

[Billy4202]

For whatever reason, dual-zone/automatic climate controls have seemed wonky to me in everything I've driven; you'd have to constantly adjust them. Escape, Outback, CLK500...but I have very little complaint about the Civic's. It feels like it maintains a more consistent temp overall.

 

[PS3]

I've never owned a car with auto climate control before, but it seems to be behaving counter-intuitively. If the car is very hot inside (as in sitting out in the sun), and it's set to 72 degrees, it behaves as expected, starts pumping out cool air. However if it's maybe 74 outside and I'm driving down the freeway, with my climate set to 71, I actually start to get quite hot, as barely any air is coming out, and I'm getting hit by the sun.

My wife is someone who can't tolerate a "stuffy" feeling in enclosed spaces, so it's pretty frequent when she's in the car that even if it's cool outside (say in the 60s), if it's 72 inside, she'll feel it's stuffy because there's no airflow. And I can turn her side down to 58 degrees and still barely any air is coming out, so she dives into the climate button, turns up the fan, but it's actually sending out hot air, to her feet for example.

Anyone else feel like it behaves a bit oddly or am I missing something in terms of how this system should work?

I'm used to just having air blowing at a certain amount and adjusting the hot or coldness of it based on the outside temperature. I also usually recycled inside air, so I'm not smelling exhaust etc, but the car seems to almost always default to pulling external air, unless it's trying to aggressively cool the car.

Turn off ECON - it makes things more consistent (though admittedly, still a little wonky).

 

[Ultrafrozen]

I also find the Auto setting doesn't allow enough airflow so I just run it on manual, crank the fan up and adjust the temperature knob where I like it.

 

[mno86]

As others have said, I think ECO really has a strong impact on the Auto Climate Control. If I have it set at 68-70 (its still cold in Wisconsin), it often gets VERY cold for awhile. I'm not sure if this is moderating the temperature to keep it ideal, but it's very noticeable. When ECO is off, it seems to behave much better.

I still use it manually when I need to. Much more consistent. I still resent having it on the display screen, but what can you do?

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