moltonbrown

guys

just a puzzling series of events here. am sure i wasnt doing something right but maybe someone can help with my a/c question:

here's what we usually do during summer months:

a) when we turn on the climate control system, we turn on the fan speed (eg. blower) by pressing the button and arrow up.

b) we adjust the temp to 72F (eg. outside temp say is 80-90F) and we do NOT turn on the A/C button (eg. the A/C ON indicator isnt lit up in the dash)

question 1: do we need to push the A/C button? steps a and b seem to work all summer so far... EXCEPT today when:

c) temp outside was 57F (yeah darn storm) and we continue to set the inside temp at 72F. we did not turn A/C button on and followed our usual procedure but no air came out of the vents.

Q2: was the climate control trying to actually turn on the heater at that time (and hence the car wasnt warm enough therefore no air blew out of the vent?)

Q3: what we then tried thereafter was to set the temp to Lo, at that point the air blower worked and cold air came out. I know there's a cabin temp sensor - I'm sure I didnt block it, hence with today's condition (57F outside, and we wanted 70-72F inside), should we have opted for "auto" instead?

Q4: how does the climate control know that it should let out heat instead of cold air during winter months?

many thanks!

ps. we rarely use auto since my wife finds the blower too strong LOL

wspy

Well from my experience the A/C button should be on to enable the system to control the cabin air temp to the desired setting (your 72F). So, with the button pressed the system will activate the amount of heat or cold air as it sees fit to regulate the cabin air temp. In the case with outside being 57F and cabin set at 72F,A/C light on, the system would have introduced heat to the cabin to raise the insibe temp. With the A/C light off as in your case, the system would not do anything which is what happened!
What you should do is leave the A/C button ON and the system will work 'automatically' so to speak.
Its sort of wierd but the auto button operation ties in other functions like fan speed etc.

moltonbrown

thanks wspy. will try your iteration tomorrow. today, i initially pushed the auto button (57F outside 72F inside again) and nothing happened (maybe it was already warm enough inside the cabin?). a/c button was not turned on at this time.

however, i did engage it "manually" - after pushing auto, i pushed the blower higher and wind came out but the auto light indicator on the dash came off. only air (unregulated - not warm nor cold) came out.

then, thereafter, i switched on the a/c button while adjusting the temps and the blower and i noticed the air was growing colder/warmer as i punched down/up the temp settting.

hence, what's the purpose of the auto button? should we wait for the auto button to work (coz the auto button didnt do anything earlier when i pushed it though i didnt push the a/c button - should both be pushed on?)

thanks.

in essence, what's the diff btwn auto and turning on a/c button (shldnt pushing the auto (button) essentially turn on the a/c (button) as well?)

wspy

Check the quick start guide that you should have got with the vehicle and or the manual, its all in there

moltonbrown

thanks wspy. did read through my om (and even went myacura for their added info on climate control). got all the more confused LOL but ill figure it out somehow

today ill try turning a/c on first (it always worked w/o even turning the button on then - could be doing it wrong before even if it worked haha) thanks again

Carbon2008RDX

Simple. Just press the AUTO button and set the temp to whatever you want and you'll be nice and cool in no time.

moltonbrown

so i tried a/c on and auto today... i guess it'll take a bit of getting used to for me -- the auto button didnt really initially "work"... what do i mean? it's strange that the auto button actually stops my climate control from working until i press the temp down to say 68 or lower (eg. again 68C outside today and i wanted 72F inside - pressing auto and a/c on didnt make the climate control work). however, adjusting the temp to say 68C inside made the climate control blow cool air on the vents as well as the footwell... i guess that's how auto works- even controls where the air blows to? i usually just use the vents directly on the dash (straight to the face), hence why i said it takes time to get used to... thanks a lot guys... will experiment with these permutations more. maybe the auto recognized my inside cabin was 72F initially so it didnt blow any air initially? then when i adjusted to 68F it realized it wont take long to bring down the temp hence why air blew out of the dash vents as well as footwell vents... ??

ps. i did check the manual and it did state: " in cold weather, the fan will not come on automatically until the heater starts to develop warm air" -- maybe this is what's happening when i press the auto button as it's been either 57-68F outside and i want 72F inside?

moltonbrown

just curious and a noob question here if you dont mind. has it ever happened that you press auto and nothing happens? eg. what if the temp inside the cabin happens to be precisely where you set it (eg. you want 68F and it's actually 68F inside the cabin) - will auto still work (Eg. blow air that's neither warm nor cold?)

phoward_15

Moltonbrown - I can't answer your last question as I never use the "Auto" feature but to your initial question. You shouldn't have to have the AC "on" in order to get heat out of your car. As long as the engine is warmed up you should get warm air out of your vents whether AC is on or off. The AC just helps to take out the moisture from the air when it's on so it's not so humid in the car. Obviously with the AC on in the summer time the temperature of the air is much cooler and drier than if you just had the vent on. But if you turned up the heat with no AC you should be getting warm air.

moltonbrown

thanks phoward. ok, next time i use the auto button, i will wait for the engine to warm up first to see if it blows out warm air (i presume the heater core was still heating up before i started fiddling with the temp, hence no response on auto immediately upon pressing it).

our rdx isnt diesel powered so i would hope that after 5 mins upon engine start up warm air comes out already. and for the a/c, that's what got me all confused. some consider a/c = cooling, but i think you're definition is more precise = a/c = air conditioning, conditioning the air whether it is cool or warm. thanks