Air con question

[nickhx]

Quick question for other Audi A4 B8 owners.

I am bit concerned that the central air conditioning vents on my dashboard are not working properly as I rarely feel air blowing out of them - particularly when the car is warming up in the morning.

I can feel air through the side vents but virtually nothing through the central vents. However, when I switch the air conditioning system from Auto to Manual and select the central vents, I can feel air coming out ok.

Also, I find that once I have been driving on the motorway for a while (maybe 20 minutes or so) I start to feel the temperature in the cabin dropping slightly and in particular, the central vents seem to be outputting noticeably cooler air than the side vents.

I have the car booked in with the dealer next week to check this out, but I was just wondering whether anyone else had a similar experience with their air con?

Thanks in advance.

Nick

[troc]

For some reason, the Auto setting doesn't seem to use the central vents!

It's somewhat annoying as I end up with one cold hand in the morning!

John

[Hippogriff]

I concur, the centre vents seem highly under utilised... you have to switch to the three arrows (or some other settings, I guess, but I just go straight to that) to get them doing any proper work. The auto. setting will not warm your left hand.

Think Audi will say this is "working as designed"... but, if they don't and agree it could be a fault, then please report back here as some of us will want to get the same thing looked at.

[Tony2]

Guys i have no problem With my centre vents now....

But at first i thought there was a issue then i realised that if you turn of the window heating switches then plenty of air will come out of the middle vents, Its designed this way so when you need the window clearing you get max air to that area


Anthony

[nickhx]

hmmm, sounds like this is by design unfortunately. :-( Anyone else experience the slight cooling when driving on motorways for longer than half an hour?

[TTQC180Canada]

Hello everyone,

This isn't based on anything I can substantiate but might make sense...

Anyone who knows of the VW Phaeton it has a draft free interior, at least when the interior reaches the set temp. It was one of the design requirements that Piech set on this car due to how he didn't like air being blown at his face.

With that said, I was in my friends Audi Q7 (he works for Audi and is German) and noticed he had all the forward vents closed and even the AC off. I asked him why and he said how he doesn't like air on his face. I found that interesting and mentioned the Phaeton to which he replied that most Germans don't like a lot of AC especially on the face.

He explained that the center vents are only activated when a rapid change in temp is needed or forced by the driver.

My A4 does as you describe as does my MK1 TT coupe but mostly while in heating mode. I find that during the summer the center vents blow a bit stronger.

I did however notice a few days ago that my passenger side center vent on the A4 started blowing a ton of air. At first I thought i had a fault but then it dawned on me...The sun was beating down directly on the passenger side of the car so figured it was the sun sensor doing it's thing. I pulled along side a tall building and pulled over in it's shade. Not 10 secs later the vents normalized but when back to their tricks once I pulled away into the sun.

Hope this sheds some light on what's going on and comforts you in knowing your car seems to be working properly, or at least by design.

Perry

[nickhx]

Interestingly, within the first year of use of the car, my wife used to complain about the air blowing in her face from the central vents.

However, I went and had a software update applied to enable SDHC functionality on my Concert Radio and it seems as part of that update Audi may have tweaked how the Auto air conditioning function works, as she has stopped complaining (at least for now!!)

[Legs]

Mine is the same, to get any meaningful air out of the central vents I have to switch to the manual control settings, I get nothing on Auto. Gonna try switching the side vents off later though, see if that works

[TTQC180Canada]

I talked to a friend who works at Audi of America about this thread and he pointed me to the owners manual which states that in heating mode most of the air is directed to the defrost and floor vents - vents 1 and 4 which is shown in the manual - 1 being the defrost and 4 the floor vents.

Vents 2 and 3 are mostly used while in cooling mode. 2 being the outer vents and 3 referencing the center dash vents.

Try setting the HVAC to a lower temp than what is outside and see if that works for you. Perhaps this is what is happening.

I know this post is about the lack of heat coming from the center vents...I'm just trying to help shed some light on why it's not.

I for one don't like having a feature in my car not operating as I think it should be but then feel some what better knowing it's at least not broken.

Cheers,

Perry

[kelvinbishop]

This is correct. In the summer you get lots of cold air coming from the central vents. In winter they rarely work unless you select a lower setting for the temperature having had it set higher. Warm air from outer vents - cold air from inner vents.