Is this normal - Hot air blowing in through vents?
 

Not sure if this is normal or not for our cars. When I have the AC/Heat off completely there is a lot of hot air flowing out of the vents, mainly when in motion of course. I have never noticed this on any of my previous and current cars, but this is my first Subaru so I am not sure if this is common.

Any input??

Thanks!

unfortunately yes

Awesome. Guess I have to get used to closing the vents while the windows are down and at the track.

Thanks pistol

I have noticed this in all of my cars, but only when the heater was the last thing that was on. If you put on the AC and then turn off HVAC, it doesn't leak heat.

It has been doing it after the AC has been running. I've only ran the system with the AC on.

If you hit the Recirc button before you turn off the AC that should stop the airflow :thumbup:

+1 for turning on the recirc. All cars do this to varying levels, since they always let some amount of outside air into the car for ventilation purposes. Turning recirc on mostly stops outside air from coming through the HVAC system. It's maybe more noticeable in the BRZ due to the design of the cowl and the how close packed the car is.

I've read this a couple times now. Being from PA we have very similar weather so I'm surprised it'd be so different...

If you turn the dial to "low" and keep it to the first few fan clicks I find its nice, especially on the highway.


I have a sport tech (dual zone) so I'm not sure if maybe there is a difference?

yup. just hit the recirc and no mo hot air.

Thanks guys! Will give it a shot.

Yes, recirc button willl close the vent allowing outside air to go in. :thumbsup:

It is a design flaw on Subaru's part. You can do this. If you feel hot air blowing into cabin, turn on the AC, set temp to 62, then turn off AC. the air will blow cold from now on.

Basically if you want warm air, the car should open a channel for the air to enter heat core and then enter cabin. If you turn AC system off, the car should shut down that channel. Obviously, Subaru engineers forget to do this. So when you turn off AC, they still let that channel to heat core open. This will only happen when you turn on AC but set it to a warm temp in the morning. Then when you drive it during afternoon w/o AC on.

Still doesn't help in my case. This is my first subie where this has been an issue.

When it was much cooler, no problem. I normally wanted some warmer air anyway even if I wasn't running the heat. Now, though, it gets annoying. Usually I have to run the temp up to just about where ambient is (set HVAC to auto, and roll the temp up till the fans drop to a low fan speed) and hit the A/C and recirc. If I have the windows down, I hit recirc and turn a/c off and drop the temps down. Still end up with way warmer air than what is coming in through the windows.

I think it's b/c our engine bay runs hotter than normal anyway, so wherever the cabin air is being pumped in from fresh (or even near the firewall), is where it gets heated up more than normal.

I bet if one is able to ventilate a good bit of the normal bay heat, the issue will decrease.

If only the fender vents were functional from the factory.....

Try setting it to blow on the windshield then turn it off.

That's the other recommendation I've seen/tried. :thumbup:

I have the same issue with my 2005 Legacy GT. I haven't noticed this behavior with my BRZ (manual climate controls).

I never drive all my cars with recir off. But for safety venting reasons, auto manufacturers always default to having it off? At least with Bimmers, it is a programmable feature. Perhaps it's the freeway parking in LA; who needs pure exhaust and fresh foul catalytic converter smells warfing into a small interior?

Air still blows through when you have the recirc on? Sounds like a problem because when I have that on I don't get any air in at all.

No, I'm saying that even with recirculating air, the air coming out of the vents is hotter than the air coming in through the windows. That means that something in the HVAC system that is making contact with the airflow after the fresh air/recirc cutoff point is heating the HVAC cabin air.

The trick that I learned is to turn the system on for a min then hit the off button. It will continue to allow air into the car but it will be cooler temp for the rest of the drive.

Just did a 190 trip like this and it was great.

I have a BRZ limited with the dual zone climate control...do not know if this works on other units.

I'll give this a try, since I'm in a BRZ Limited also.

Yea it seems going from fullauto to off fixes it for me (you do have to wait for the air to cool off before hitting off for whatever reason). at speed a good amount of air is forced through the vents. I was driving in ~75 degree weather and it felt 'close to outside' temp.

i found the same issue with hot air blowing through the vents... i played around with various settings and found that with everything off and airflow set so that the air is coming through from outside, once i pressed the air direction button and set it to the main vents or whatever is your preference (it actually has to light up to show the selected option), then the air coming in was cool... it obviously also depends on the outside temperature at the time...

i am not sure if this will be of help as i am no great at explaining things but it worked for me...