Cold Air When Want Heat

MBT · April 8, 2009

During the recent cold wave and the temperature at 40 degrees I get cold air from the vents with the temperature set at 72 degrees in Auto Mode. I don’t like cold air hitting me in the face in cold weather. It would be nice in hot weather, though.

I tested the controls in my driveway with the windows open and the outside temperature at 40 degrees. While watching the airflow display and the fan speed display for various temp settings.

For temp setting of 72 the air was shown as coming from the instrument panel vents, which was the case, and the fan speed had 3 bars.

As I increased the temp the air changed to Bi-Level and the speed reduced to 1 bar at a setting of 78 to 79 degrees.

I finally started getting heat at about 81 degrees and the air was coming from the floor vents. The bars were increasing, too.

Finally at 84 to 85 degrees there were lots of bars and lots of heat.

I have an extended warranty. I took the 2005 ES330 to the dealer and explained my "cold air" problem to them. They said they could not duplicate the problem so I asked them to keep it overnight and try again in the morning when it was colder. They did and reported that all tests showed no problem. The Chief Service person told me that we had the temp set at 72 degrees and their tests showed that the temp coming out of the vents was 72 degrees. I argued that that does not sound right. But he said that there was no problem. He said to bring it back if I wanted to have it checked again.

Does anyone have any suggestions as to how to convince the service people that there is a problem? Surely the temp that you set is not the temp that should come out of the vents, but the temp that you want the inside of the car to be.