Honda still can't get cabin ventilation right

[andruec]

Why is it Hondas fault? They give you air con, heating, fresh or recirculated air, air outlets, and even opening Windows, all you have to do is use them to achieve the desired effect. I think it is down to operator error.

I doubt that view surprises anyone. All you ever seem to do is defend Honda. If they sold you a car with three wheels and only half a roof you'd probably praise them for the ventilation and say that it's our fault if we can't keep the car balanced.

Anyway to my mind if all the climate control can do is modify temperature then it's not really 'automatic climate control'. It's just a digital thermostat. Looking at the manual it doesn't seem to say whether it can monitor humidity or not. It just refers to 'sensors'. But at the very least if it detected a low outside temperature it could periodically send some air to the screen or maybe a continuous trickle would suffice.

[Skyrider]

Why is it Hondas fault? They give you air con, heating, fresh or recirculated air, air outlets, and even opening Windows, all you have to do is use them to achieve the desired effect. I think it is down to operator error.

I doubt that view surprises anyone. All you ever seem to do is defend Honda.

Not at all, a few people seem to expect luxury car features after paying for a supermini.

[culzean]

Not at all, a few people seem to expect luxury car features after paying for a supermini.

+1   

I liked it better when we could choose temperature with a rotary knob with blue and red sectors on it, and change it quickly without having to look down at dash to find buttons to press,  all I seem to do is override the auto system all the time - but I do keep trying auto to see if it has 'learnt' my preferences,  but it's always just as dumb as ever.

[guest6436]

I have started to think this is problem with all the hondas, our mk1 is just terrible at this, mk2 also
Than we had an 2003 honda CR-v -same problem, and we also have 2009 crv now - same thing!!

No other car brand we have had ( and we have lots of car in family) has had this problem this big!

[Skyrider]

+1   

I liked it better when we could choose temperature with a rotary knob with blue and red sectors.

After three cars with climate control (that worked without intervention) I find my SEs manual system perfectly adequate and rarely needs adjustment. The settings that work for me are air con always on,  feet and dash vents in summer, feet and windscreen in winter. Temperature dial usually at 50% with the fan on at position 2. This seems to be comfortable in all but extremes of temperature and / or humidity.

[guest6316]

As I previously said earlier in the thread, I have my Climate Control on almost all the time, I did some experimenting with it off a while ago, but not to cure any misting up problem.

Yes I get misted up occasionally, mostly I know the cause. Either I've jumped in the car soaking wet from the rain or I've been sat in the car for a long time with engine and everything off (waiting for the good lady to come out of the shop with my credit card in tact).

Its the same with any car, well any car that I've ever owned, moisture from clothes or breath will end up on the windscreens.

The system just needs a little helping hand by pushing demist 'buttons' after a few seconds all clear. I cant see the problem at all.

[andruec]

The system just needs a little helping hand by pushing demist 'buttons' after a few seconds all clear. I cant see the problem at all.

Since leaving the vents set to screen+feet mine has been fine. But that means it's no longer operating in auto mode. It's just an aircon system with a thermostat which hardly seems to justify the expense over the bog-standard air con variant.

If some people like to waste their time twiddling knobs and carrying out other menial tasks then fine. But I paid a premium for my Jazz at least in part because I wanted an automatic climate control system. And it seems to me that I haven't got all that I paid for.

One thing intrigues me. I'm sure I read in one of the Jazz manuals something along the lines of '..directs air to different vents as required.'. I can't find that in the Mk3 manual. I also vaguely recall that one of my previous Jazz did send the air to the windscreen when cold without me telling it. The problem was that it stopped doing it after ten minutes and the screen kept misting up even after several hours driving.

Edit: Some interesting comments in this thread from 2013:

I'm not the first to question it.

Some Civic owners aren't too happy about it either.

[culzean]

http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2007/10/lazyamerica200710   

Lazy-Ass Nation
America's Can-Do-But-Why-Bother spirit has produced a wave of gadgets that take the effort out of almost everything: vacuuming rugs, parking cars, walking dogs. In fact, why wear out those tongue muscles when a virtual assistant can order you a Motorized Ice Cream Cone?

Could it be that our increasing willingness to get through life in a nearly comatose state has kept us physiologically stagnant?


LOL - humans will soon be just a head and a finger able to work a remote control,  even the finger will drop off if remote controls all get replaced by voice activated stuff,  just keep the throat spray close because if you get a sore throat and lose your voice you will starve.

[Skyrider]

This thread seems to have the theme of defect or dislike again. I am sure the HVAC works exactly as Honda intended. A bit less belief in marketing waffle and some expectation management might help.

[guest6425]

Seems like a moan about nothing. It's a Jazz not a bus, is it really (I mean really) that hard to turn aircon on, have it set for screen & feet at the fan speed & temp you want, rather than an auto thing that can only guess at what you want.

I've never ever had any problems with air-con either manual or auto in any car I've ever had.

In fact, as long as your aircon is on - generally I've found face or face & feet will still keep the screen clear, even in a big ass SUV with a lot more interior space than a jazz.

I DO find though, that if you turn air-con off in a modern vehicle and your ventilation isn't set for screen, then it WILL mist up, but not with aircon on.

Don't cry about the auto aircon , they're only ever a fudge. Take control of your environment and have it set to your preferences, I dare say in auto mode my preferences might well be different to yours, how is the system supposed to know what you like or I like.
Set it yourself, it's hardly taxing, you're not hand cranking the damn thing.

Oh & check your pollen filter, that can cause interesting issues with ventilation if its not been changed.

[Hobo]

Was in Lancashire unfortunately for a funeral a few days ago, but that's another story, we went for a meal afterwards and we volunteered to run two people home, left at 7pm on a raining and damp evening and almost as soon as four got in the car the windows immediately misted up, switched the demist buttons on and within two minutes the car was clear switched the CC back to Auto and the car remained clear for the rest of a twenty mile journey in country and built up areas and no one stopped breathing at all during the journey.

No complaints about the CC, as stated before it appears to work satisfactorily and without any problems for us.

[guest1372]

I could be tempted to upgrade my binary a/c to a slightly more sophisticated auto system by wiring in a thermostat to the on/off button.  It seems the heat/cool generation part is the same, it's just the control and sensors that vary.  Not sure a large Honeywell room-stat duct taped to the dashboard will look that appealing, might have to go down the micro-controller route instead for temp and humidity control with a little OLED display.
--
TG

[andruec]

So because the dealer's techies have been playing with my car a lot of settings were on default when I picked it up. And guess what I saw? When I started it the air con display showed 'feet'. Then after a few seconds it switched to 'windscreen'. Wow! I thought. To be honest it's the first time I've started the car with a truly cold cabin with the CC set to full auto. Maybe it's just because my car is kept in a garage and the system never triggered.

So now we know that the Climate Control system absolutely can direct airflow to the screen if it feels the need. So all this rubbish about me expecting too much is exactly that. The system is designed to help keep the screen unfogged without manual intervention.

Unfortunately either mine really is faulty or Honda are a bunch of muppets. After a few seconds as I pulled out of the carpark it switched the flow back to 'feet' and refused to change it. Eventually I had to manually move it to 'screen+feet' to get rid of the fogging.

[peteo48]

Mine does steam up a bit but I find the windscreen boost thingy gets the screen cleared pretty quickly. Going back a bit I found my VW Golf an absolute pig to clear even with the fan on full blast but that was with manual aircon.

[Skyrider]

Over the last week or so I have been experimenting with the HVAC system. I normally run with the Air con on, and have done for years and many cars. I have found that turning off the aircon in the current damp conditions causes almost immediate misting. This can be slowly cleared with heat. Once the car has dried out (explanation coming)  there is little if any misting with the aircon off. I think the moisture that causes the misting when turning off the aircon is from a pool of undrained water in the aircon evaporator casing. Once this has dried out the car will be mist free, using the aircon tops up this pool of water and causes mist when the aircon is turned off. My conclusion is the evaporator does not drain completely and causes misting until it dries out after the aircon is turned off.

EDIT -

If you stand by the drivers side front wheel and look (with a torch) down and across the back of the engine you can see the evaporator drain. It is a short open ended rubber pipe bent rearwards, oddly it drains onto the engine undertray, you can also see the pipe in the passenger footwell.