Lawtyger

W recently bought a 2011 TL and noticed that with the climate control if you have driver auto on and then hit the recirculate button to turn recirculate on, driver auto turns off. If you then hit driver auto to turn it back on, the recirculate turns off. Does anyone know why this is, or better yet, how to get them both on at the same time.

With our Toyota 4Runners we could have auto and recirculate on at the same time. I must be missing something on the TL but I am new to Acura.

lji

Haven't tried this specifically on my TL, but there are differences between manufacturers and you may have found one of them. For me, once a destination was set in the nav, I wanted to see the "arrival time" that the Lexus IS showed, but alas no such setting in the TL. The TL shows hours/minutes left to reach destination. But, for what it's worth, Acura's nav is far superior to the one in the Lexus.

Lawtyger

So far, this one oddity I have discovered is shadowed by the numerous (more important) things I love about the TL over the 4Runner.

I just like the auto function since it maintains the selected temp. and just happened to notice after a couple days that when I hit recirculate b/c some bad air was getting in, auto turned of. Strangely enough, while turning on recirculate turns off auto on the drivers side, the auto for the passenger side remains on .

compewterbleu

I'll have to revisit this in the car, I've been thrilled how it monitors the temp by the Suns positioning...sick.

JM2010 SH-AWD

The climate system will automatically decide when to recirculate, heat, run AC, etc. as long as you have it on Auto. If you engage Sync, whatever driver-side commands you give it will automatically apply to the passenger side. When you manually set it to recirculate, defrost, lower vents, etc., it takes it off of Auto mode.

Linmk2

Many of the cars I've owned over the years have had automatic temp controls, and all have worked the same way. In AUTO mode everything is controlled by the unit. In other words in AUTO mode, you can not override anything without AUTO going to manual operation. The system decides whether recir. is on or off along with many other settings including fan. Usually, recir will only be on if the interior of the car is hot. Once the interior has cooled near the set temp. the unit will switch to outside air. Before my TL, I had a Toyota Solara XLE convertible and I was unable to use any mode button without turning off the AUTO setting. The same was the case with my 2001 Acura CL.

compewterbleu

Now that's advanced!

Lawtyger

Interesting. I can understand why adjusting fan speed would obviously take it off of auto. Not sure why circulate requires it to come off of auto. I mean, if I'm on the interstate behind a smelly truck for 10 miles and I want to turn recirculate on to keep the smell out, I'd also like the temperature to stay at 75 degrees via the auto.

Just ran out to the car to verify, and like I said, hitting recirculate only turns off "driver's" auto. Passenger auto remains lit. That doesn't make sense to me. Maybe driver's auto is still on auto but the light just turns off?

Small thing really, but interesting.

compewterbleu

There is a Sync feature that will set the passenger sides temp and control to the drivers side.

Lawtyger

Just to compare, I went out to the garage and doubled checked our 2006 Runner SR5. If auto is off and recirculate it on, when I turn on auto recirculate does turn off. BUT, all you have to do is push the recirculate button again and auto and recirculate both stay on. So, if you are driving down the road with auto on at 75 degrees and you decide to turn on recirculate, it does not turn off auto.

Lawtyger

The sync button does not have an affect on the issue. For example, when recirculate is on, the auto symbol for the drivers air does not appear but the auto symbol for the passenger air does appear. Hitting sync in this situation does not change this (i.e. auto doesn't come on on the drivers side to match the passenger setting, nor does the opposite happen, auto does not turn off on the passenger side to match the driver setting). Put more simply, I don't think sync affects the issue I mentioned.

compewterbleu

Oh.

RSLTSX09XMNAVWX

This is the way Honda, Acura does it. Same thing in my wife TSX and My Pilot!

Lawtyger

Good to know, thanks.

Smoothie97

I hate how you can't have Driver Auto and Recirculate. The air filter in the TL is pretty horrible. I can smell exhausts from the cars (usually big trucks) in front of me all the time. I have recirculate on all the time. But lose my Driver Auto. How come the Passenger Auto still works when recirculate is on!?!

Eli

The "AUTO" display means that the system is in FULLY automatic mode. If you adjust any control, you're overriding that particular control, everything else remains automatically controlled. If you push recirculate, you are JUST overriding automatic control of recirculation.

friesm2000

iTrader: (4)

but alot of times though it will still be auto with the other things though, but just take away the "auto" display though

ie: you change the mode, the fan will still be auto (along with the temp control)




btw older acuras, have a mode called "Full Auto" when everything is controlled by the HVAC module, otherwise it was just "Auto" mode

and normally that is the only time you really want it on anyways (or extremely hot outside)
cause if cold outside, the windows just fog up easily

Lawtyger

So just to confirm, you are saying that when hitting recirculate (and the auto display turns off on the driver's side) it is only overriding auto for the recirculate function but the other auto functions - like temperature and fan speed - are still on auto (despite the auto display disappearing) and will maintain the car at that temp.

Just took a look at the manual. Not really clear if this is accurate but it sure seems like common sense that if you were designing the system it would work this way rather than punish (I use that term comically) the driver by having them lose auto but letting the passenger keep auto. Look how much trouble that little auto light (or lack there of is causing)

Funny thing is, this thread has gotten so many more responses then the other threads I started when looking for more important information before buying a TL or MDX. Thanks for the responses folks.

Takehold66

Excellent answer - That is exactly how it works.

Linmk2

As an aside, some Mercedes cars will auto switch to recirc. if sensors detect higher than normal emissions near the front of the car, such as the case of bumper to bumper traffic or your stuck behind a truck. As the price goes up, I guess so do the features

black label

This.

But to expand on it a little....

If the car requires an extreme temperature change to get you from where you are to where you want to be, it will turn on recirculate to expidite the process.

The car does not like to keep recirculate on as it will cause a build up of humidity in the cabin and fog up the windows which is why it always wants to turn it off.

It is impossible to make any manual adjustments to the climate control (other than adjusting the requested temperature) and also have it stay in auto. Auto means the car makes adjustments to maintain the temp you requested but it wants to be in full control or none at all.

friesm2000

iTrader: (4)

sounds like a neat feature, but just wait till it breaks and needs to be repaired at $$$


and to keep the fresh air moving throughout the cabin, versus become static air over enough time (not quite, cause some air is still exchanged, even with it on recirc, but nowhere close to the fresh air setting)


but as mentioned above, with the emissions sensor, kinda a neat feature to have, but $$$ though