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Vent system on Mazdas ???

My old cars ( 62 Beetle, 65 Dart, 71 Dart, 67 Dodge,69 Coronet, 71 Barracuda,

71 Corona, 76 Corolla, 81 Honda, 86 Tercel, etc. ) DID NOT WORK this way.

I was bitching today about a GORGEOUS COOL DAY at 70 mph on the highway and the air coming out the vents of the 2002 Mazda Protege measured 100 º.

SUCKS !!! It was GORGEOUS !!! This lousy car makes you put the AC ON on a day when the air temp is 80º.

Did I just GUESS it was 80º ??? NO, I took the thermometer out of the dash and held it in the airstream to measure it and then put it back into the dash to see the air in the dash was 20º HOTTER !!!!!!!!!! I was ready to put the AC on and write a nasty letter to Mazda.

I also noticed the VOLUME of air coming out of the dash was VERY LOW . So I had to turn the FAN on to get more air flow . Yeah right, air at 100 º. Might as well be in Iraq.

THEN MIRACLE OF MIRACLES.

I noticed that if I turn the THERMOSTAT to the COLDEST setting : the VOLUME of air INCREASED and after a few minutes the air coming OUT OF THE VENTS was 10 º COOLER THAN IT WAS BEFORE.

Now the air was coming out at 90º vs the PREVIOUS 100º from the DASH. Still HOT, but much MORE ACCEPTABLE. I could simply put the air on but it was such a GORGEOUS DAY at about 80º. With the sunroof open, it was really nice and no AC was needed. I DON'T HESITATE to turn on the AC when it is 90+º with high humidity.

The DOOR inside the ductwork has to OPEN WIDER and allow MORE AIR to come in resulting in 10º drop.

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I would appreciate any constructive comments about how this vent system works on other Mazdas.

I gave my 97 Protege to my daughter and it had the same problem- air coming from the dash was 20º hotter on the nicest day. I had to take the car back to have the locks replaced under warranty and asked the dealer at the time about the heat. He said, "I don't know. We don't have one on the lot to compare yours to."

I can guarantee that it does not work this way on my 92 Toyota truck. I can have the thermostat lever in the full cold or partial cold position ( full blue/maximum cool or mid blue/medium cool ) and the air is NOT 20º hotter than ambient air. It comes close to ambient. No AC on the truck and I drove it with no major heat problems in the cab since 1992 when new. Hence my surprise at the Mazda.

I also had a 92 Olds Cutlass Ciera rental and was able to use the VENT with the windows up til around noon. We enjoyed cool air with no road noise til about noon. Then it became hot and we put on the AC.

That is why I was surprised to find the Mazda Protege to have what I thought as such a poorly designed system.

This is not contained in the owners manual. It does NOT say to turn the thermostat to the full cold position in order to get maximum cool air when using the VENT only with no AC.

TIA

Reply to
Conase
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Dunno about the Protege, but on Miatas the air mix door is factory adjusted to open all the way (i.e., open to the heater core), not to close all the way. A simple adjustment of the temperature control cable fixes it.

But there's another factor: the HVAC intake is surrounded by sheet metal that's heated by the engine bay, and it loses heat to the incoming vent air. The problem is worst after the car is parked in the sun with a hot engine, and everything heatsoaks. Running the A/C for a few seconds will help cool off some of the vent plumbing.

Of course, the ultimate fix is simply putting the top down. Oh, wait...nevermind.

Reply to
Lanny Chambers

That was one of Mazda's four major brain-farts regarding the M2 ventillation system. The other three are:

2) There seems to be no way to turn off the foot ventillation completely. 3) Except at the coldest and hottest setting, the air coming into the footwell (which is impossible to completely stop when any other vents are getting air) is somewhere between noticeably warmer than the other vent air and foot-searingly hot. I have yet to figure out how to use it to keep my arms and chest warm on a cool night, and not fry my feet. Come to think of it, there have been several situations where I couldn't figure out how the keep my upper body warm without making it feel like I was walking on hot coals. 4) They took away my ability to decide whether or not I want to use the A/C when I turn on the windshield defogger. Dammit, there are plenty of times that I don't want to waste gas by running the A/C, but just want some air to clear the windshield. I'm not braindead--if I want the A/C on, I'm quite certain I'll remember to turn it on!

Mazda seems to be real fond of the attitude "if it works, tinker with it till it does something really screwed up", and it's really starting to piss me off. To my knowledge, the "feature" that Lanny mentions is fixable, per a procedure on miata.net. The other three, I haven't seen any fixes for. I've been considering stuffing a rag in the foot vents, but there are actually some times when I do want my feet ventillated.

Eric Lucas

Reply to
Eric Lucas

"Conase" wrote

On Mazdas, and most other modern cars, the temperature control adjusts the mixing between heated and unheated (or cooled, if you have the A/C on) air. The "vent", "floor", and "defrost" controls only change which nozzle the air comes out of. If you select "vent" and "warm" then you get warm air out of the vents.

Reply to
Doug Hagerman

Yep, could be. Mine's an '01.

Eric Lucas

Reply to
Eric Lucas

It sounds like you'all can do all the miata owners a very great service.

Since there seems to be two Miatas, one with the heat problem and one absolutely without, Both should be gotten together. First for comparison and temperature measurement, and then disassembly, in order to find the differences. It's obvious that mistakes were made during the assembly. The only question is which one has the most mistakes. (Given that a large number of miatas seem to have the heat problem.)

Reply to
Chuck

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