At one time, in a car’s AC system you had either two choices. 1)recirculate the air, 2)Intake from the outside air. This was fine by me, because I could control it. Some areas have terrible air quality and I want to keep it on recirculate and it would stay there.
Then cars started to have this automatic switching between recirculating the air and using the intake from the outside air. This is horrible for me, because I have allergies. I would prefer the damn thing to take on recirculate until I decide to manually switch it to bring in air from the outside.
I called Toyota and asked them about this, and they have no way customer service said at corporate to override the automatic switching. This is very frustrating for me, because I start off my trip in the car with it on recirculate and then it starts sucking in dirty air from the outside. With my allergies it makes me sick and I have to constantly look to see if it is on recirculate or sucking in air from the outside.
What new cars, say in the past 3 years or so have the AC system where you can either override this automatic switching or the feature doesn’t exist to begin with and you can manually select what you want and it stays there?
Or is there a way to disable this, by cutting some wire? Replacing a microchip?
I own a 2015 Toyota 4-Runner and it still has the recirc button on the dash, which I can push anytime I want and force it to use recirculated air. Are you saying that your car doesn’t have a manual way to force it use recirculated air? I wasn’t aware that it automatically starts with recirc mode and changes to non-recirc mode or vice versa.
Yeah, mine is a Toyota Avalon and it switches back and forth from inside to outside air. So in the morning I turn the car on, and it usually is recirculating inside air. Then I start to drive and a few minutes into the trip, I start to feel ill from allergies because the outside air exhaust from cars and trucks is coming inside the car. I look down and sure enough, its been switched automatically to suck in the air from the outside. So I push it to switch it back to recirculate, but it only stays that way until it decides to suck in the air from the outside.
I did read in a forum someplace where someone who had this problem said if you held the button for 5 seconds, it would stay manually in that setting and it wouldn’t automatically switch. But my Avalon doesn’t support that feature which I confirmed with Toyota Customer support.
Other than this, I love the car. I’m wondering if something else like an Subaru Outback or some Volvo model might allow control over this.
It’s so odd, because it isn’t the kind of thing you would expect to check for during a test drive at a dealership. And I never heard of a car doing this. I think for most people they don’t realize it is doing this, because it doesn’t bother them. The Toyota customer service person did admit to me that in her Toyota (I don’t recall the model) when she leaves for work in the morning the auto switching thing for her was annoying because in the parking lot and waiting in bumper to bumper traffic she notices the bad smell from exhausts coming in.
I wonder if it is possible to have this AC system replaced with another model from Toyota that does allow the override button where you hold it 5 seconds?
What year is your Avalon? The automatic switching you mention makes it sound like your car might be equipped with an automatic climate control system where you set a temp and the car does the rest.
Incidentally, I’m pretty sure this car has a cabin air filter, and you can sometimes buy aftermarket replacements that filter better than the OEM filter. That might help with your allergies.
Also, keep in mind that even on recirculate mode it’s always bringing in some amount of fresh air (maybe 10-20%) so even if you can lock it in recirculate mode you’re still getting a car full of outside air every few minutes.
My 2016 Mazda CX-5 has the option to choose between outside air and recirculated air. I’ve always found that recirculated air gets colder faster than outside air.
Here is the climate system section of your owner’s manual. It looks like you could have a Manual or Auto system. If yours is the Auto, you’ll see on page 179, second paragraph:
So if you have that system you should be able to turn the Auto off and retain control.
However, note that in both the Manual and Auto sections the parts about Air Intake state (pages 173 and 181):
This is a key factor. Far more efficient. I run the AC for a bit on recirc, turn it off, letting the fan run. After a while, turn the AC on again.
I can’t imagine what universe an auto engineer lives in that forbids recirc under any circumstances. E.g., a year ago I was driving quite a bit in areas near forest fires. Fresh air was not a good idea.
The rental car I was using kept flipping stuff everytime I turned the AC on, or run just the fan, etc. In some cases I had to do things in a certain order to get the setting right. Why does someone else think they know better what settings I prefer?
My 2015 Honda Fit has a switch. It’s an actual switch, with a lever you have to push from one side to the other, which I like. I’m not a fan of push buttons which may or may not work and give you no way of knowing, except an LED, which also may or may not work.
DrCube and don’t get me started on touchscreens. Who the heck thinks a touchscreen is a good idea when driving. So, these engineers set everything perfectly from ride setting to engine mode to climate to radio station just once, before they start moving, and never again have to look at the screen?
As **SmellMyWort **discovered, some “smart” climate control features in modern cars do seem to have decision sequences based on what the computer thinks is better, regardless of what the ape sitting behind the wheel wants. This past weekend a rental car agency assigned me a Prius and the climate control kept switching modes by itself quite annoyingly.
(I’m a believer in smart systems but dammit there should always be a non-computer-overridable physical mechanism I can push or pull that will (take your pick) shut off the fresh air intake, interrupt the ignition circuit, open the door locks, disengage the transmission, etc. )
"To prevent fogging up of the windshield, the air intake mode may change automatically to FRESH depending on the condition of the air conditioning system. For example, when the ambient temperature is low, the air intake mode may change automatically to FRESH. This is not a malfunction. "
Which you should be able to defeat by disabling the external temperature sensor?
Obvious reasons? Okay, what are these “obvious reasons”? Around here 9 times out of 10 the outside air is more humid than the inside air.
Speaking of defrost, but not recirc related. Another auto setting I hate is turning on the AC when I have the heat on when I turn the fan direction knob to windshield.
Nope. Heat alone will defrost. Plus the windshield then stays a bit warm and further fogging in reduced (as well as helping with any frozen precip landing on the outside). As opposed to when the AC kicks on, the windshield gets colder and foggy is enhanced once I switch the knob back to body/feet flow.
Upscale vehicles have “cabin air filters” which filter the outside air.
With that said, a “HEPA” air filter will filter allergens out of the air and is the best air filter you can buy, however they are quite large and car cabin filters typically would not filter that well.
So check around for upscale cars, ask if a HEPA air filter can be installed, and ask to SEE THIS IN WRITING on the manufacturer’s vehicle brochure. (Salesmen lie!)
Also note that used upscale vehicles can have a MUCH lower price than a new one. And upscale means Volvo, Mercedes, BMW, Lexus, and high end other cars.
