Forrester Climate Control Problem Solved ????

On my 2005, it sometimes likes to roast me, and going to manual still puts out hot air when set to 65°F. For cooling it works pretty good. Most of the time in the winter I have to remove my coat and set it at 65-68°F for the car to be cool enough.

Blair

I don't know if for '06 Subaru has a fixed climate control, looking forward to hearing an answer to your question. In the mean time, a little rant:

Two years ago we traded our '98 Forester s in on a '04 Forester xs. In '04 Subaru cut some corners to keep the price down however there were some new features such as limited slip rear diff. Overall the '04 as good as the '98 was EXCEPT FOR THE #$%*&%* CLIMATE CONTROL.

If the '04 system could truly be switched to manual, all would be almost ok except for the heat never wanting to be on low. In automatic the system either is blasting heat with fan on 4 or blasting a/c with the fan on 4. And attempting to operate in "manual" get semi-auto with the a/c turning on/off at will and the fan having a mind of it's own. For example, outside temp 20 degrees F, car is up to temp and you want just a little heat. Crank the temp control down and the a/c comes in. At 20 degrees outside. A real POS. In winter we resort to turning the fan on and off manually every few min to keep the inside comfortable.

The '04 Forester is the wife's car and she puts up with it. If it were mine, it would be gone even though otherwise it is a fine car.

Woody; 95FXDS

Not sure if the 2004 is the same as the 2005, but I override the AC when it is cold outside. You can leave the rest in auto and turn it on-off. If you press it down and hold, it will flash and then go back into automatic. Recirculation works the same way.

Mine does slow the blower when needed. It seems like the system tries to guess when you need to defog/defrost.

It guesses correctly 95% of the time. Its during the 5% where it tries to cook me that I'm not too happy. When you set it to cold and dash in manual, cold air should come out when it is 40F outside.

Blair

This doesn't sound very encouraging. Why would I want to buy a car that makes me put up with this?

-- Vic Roberts Replace xxx with vdr in e-mail address.

Because other vehicles which may be thought to have "better" a/c are deficient in other areas.

It brings to mind the two-liner: "Why do Yugos have rear window defrosters?" "To keep your hands warm while pushing it."

Mike

Woody - I just spoke to the service department at my Subaru dealer and they said 1) they have never had a complaint about the automatic climate control, and 2) it can be run in manual mode. Since this would not be the first time that service or tech support people didn't know what they were talking about or lied to their customers so they would not have to face a problem, can you confirm that your are talking about a US Forester - since I know that there are significant differences between Foresters sold in the US and other countries.

-- Vic Roberts Replace xxx with vdr in e-mail address.

Victor,

Ayah, New Hampshire is in the USA. I would not have a real issue if the "manual" mode was really that. But even in "manual" the a/c goes and off on its own even at 20 degrees F and sometimes fan speeds change so "manual" is really semi-automatic. On a typical one hour trip in the winter we have to manually turn off the a/c several times. And if you turn the system "off" to kill the heat for a while and then later put the fan back on low, the a/c will be back on and fan speed/outlet choice will be back to semi-auto. All we want is to be able to set the heat/fan on low and leave it there without getting cooked. The issue with the system performance is how the microprocessor is programmed. This means that the fix should be easy, new firmware code. Hopefully the '06 models have been fixed.

Woody; 95FXDS

They must have been fixed because I have an '06 and in the situation you describe, I would just turn off the a/c and leave the rest on automatic. But I could operate everything manually if I wanted to. I've only had the new Forester for a little over a month, and it's been cold weather, but so far I'm very pleased with the climate control. It heats up pretty quickly but when the sun warms up the cabin it lets in cool outside air. I keep the a/c off--haven't needed it yet.

-yngver

My 2005 is the same, I can override the AC. It is a U.S. model. But manual sometimes does not let cold air in without it being heated. After cooking me for several minutes, cold air was available again. I leave it set at 65F all the time, except on the rare occasion I may move it to 66 or 67 F when it feels a little to cool. For the most part it works ok.

Blair

Woody - I'm going back to my dealer on Monday to look at the Forester's climate control one last time before making the final deal. I suspect that the system does not have the capability for real manual control - at least as we are used to. The AC in any car can only go on or off, but the heat has always been adjustable, either by mixing heated and non-heated air or by varying the amount of hot water allowed into the heater core.

I suspect that when the climate control was added to autos, some or all car makers eliminated the variable heat control. They assumed the system could work like a heating system in a house, where the heat is either on or off and the AC is either on or off. However, unlike a car, a house is large enough that you don't have the hot and cold air blowing on you all the time and the house itself has enough thermal inertia to hold the temperature relatively constant as the hot or cold air supply goes on and off.

-- Vic Roberts Replace xxx with vdr in e-mail address.

Hmm, well, as I said, I haven't the car long enough to experience weather warmer than about 45 degrees F and I haven't needed the a/c. I also have it set around 66 or 67. It does blast out hot air at first just to warm up the car but it stops when it gets up to temp. Then iwhen it gets too warm it does blow in cool air from outside.

I agree, there ought to be a lower setting because some people like it cooler than 65 in the car. I did have to fiddle with the vents to keep it from blasting hot air into my face when it first comes on--I have it turned more towards my hands now which can use some warming up on a cold day.

-yngver

I test drove a Forester XT yesterday just to test the climate control system. The test drive didn't last very long, but it was long enough for me to decide that I the air flow going on and off was very distracting. I set the fan speed to medium instead of automatic set the air positron to upper body instead of automatic and was pleasantly surprised to find that the temperature control seemed to work. That is, instead of the air changing from very hot to very cold as the system tried to keep the cabin at a fixed temperature, setting the air temperature lower or higher made the fixed air flow cooler or warmer, just as had hoped it would.

So, my previous speculation that cars with automatic climate control may not have the capability to adjust the temperature of the heated air was apparently incorrect.

Of, course, this short test drive was not long enough to test the system under all conditions, but it does seem encouraging.

-- Vic Roberts Replace xxx with vdr in e-mail address.