Auto AC with blower on feet

[brydeemer]

Hey there,

I just got my brand new Mazda3 yesterday. I was reading through the manual and it says that when you put the blower on feet only it automatically turns the AC on. Is there a way to disable this? I almost always use the feet only option for the blower because otherwise it gets too hot, and I don't want to be wasting all that gas to run the AC.

Bry

 

[clownphish]

The P5 has this also. It's frustrating as hell. In my case I just keep it on Feet/Dash. :mad:

 

[brydeemer]

The P5 has this also.

Too bad I didn't know this when I had my P5. No wonder my gas milage sucked.

Bry

 

[Badger Biker]

I never heard of that either. I'll keep that in mind, thanks for the info!

 

[Mazdacub]

Mod it so you have full control. It was easy in my p5 and im sure its almost the same in the M3.

 

[tsunami]

from what i read i could have sworn that it said the ac was on if the defrost was on not the feet?? it doesn't make sense to have it on for the feet, the ac takes moisture out of the air....hence it being on when you want to defrost the windows. i could be mistaken but the foot blower makes no sense...???

 

[mobomelter]

i think you must have read that wrong. i turn my blower on feet all the time and the a/c doesn't come on. actually now that i think about it the a/c only comes on when i turn on defrost about half the time.

 

[Mazdacub]

Are you talking about the M3 now or the others? all of the cars in our club up to 2003 have the a/c kick in at the floor / floor-def / def setting. There are two micro switches on the circuit board behind the face plate. You can remove both and stop the a/c from automatically turning on. This still might be the same in the M3

http://www.msprotege.com/forum/showthread.php?t=55382&highlight=a%2Fc+mod

 

[brydeemer]

Thanks for the link to the great post. Since i'm sure the logic board is a little different for the 3 i'll probably skip doing it myself. I have to take my car back to the dealer to get the Sirius radio installed so I'll ask them if they can do it while it's there.

Here's hoping,

Bry

 

[M3 5MT]

It does not come on when my car is on the feet setting, although it did when I put it on defrost (because as someone mentioned, it takes the moisture out of the air). Strangely enough, for the last month, it hasnt come on when I use defrost. It must have a humidity sensor.

 

[goldwing2000]

According to the factory service manual, the A/C is supposed to come on with the air at full floor, full defrost and anywhere in between. Additionally, the fresh/recirculate mode goes fresh only when in any of the defrost modes (regardless of what lights are lit on the dash).

It may be working differently in people's cars but that's how it's supposed to work.

Instead of having two microswitches, this system has a single, three-position switch to control these functions. I always run my heater at the first notch to the left of full floor to eliminate the A/C functionality but I never really paid attention to when it does and doesn't come on. I just assumed all the manuals (service and owners) were correct.

I was going to tear into the system and bypass the switch but it doesn't really bother me that much and after having already had a nasty run-in with this car's electronics, I'm not about to go messing around just for the hell of it.

 

[brydeemer]

The manual says very explicitly that when the AC automatically comes on, the AC light will NOT come on, so we the users will never know that the AC is on, unless we listen for the louder engine noise that results.

Bugger,

Bry

 

[GimmeA3S]

I don't know about you guys, but it's very obvious to me when the A/C kicks on and off...if you drive a 5-speed, you can actually feel it, especially if it kicks on during acceleration in 1st gear.

Not sure why they think it's necessary to run the A/C on full floor, but I just run mine one notch to the left when I want the car heated.

 

[Mazdacub]

The only reason I can think of having the a/c on the floor setting is because your feet are cold when they are wet or have snow on them (usually). The heat on the floor setting will cause evaporation and the it rises in the car and fogs up the window. This is their way of keeping it defogged I guess..????

 

[M3 5MT]

What do the middle notches do? I always figured that it would be a split but more biast to one side, in other words, the first blank notch next to full defrost will be something like 75% defrost, 25% feet. Is this correct?

 

[goldwing2000]

Yep. That's correct.

 

[GimmeA3S]

The notch between Vent/Floor and Floor is heavily biased towards floor....so when I don't want hot air blowing in my face, that's where I put it to avoid the A/C from kicking on. This is my 12th car, and is the first to have A/C kicking on when set to Floor. They probably are trying to avoid some evaporation problems, but that's a little extreme.

 

[funnylittlman]

That little notch to the side is key. That's what I do too to skip the A/C from kicking in. Do you all notice when on defrost, the gas goes down quicker?