Air vents, no cool air.
 

When the A/C is off, my 2010 Fit puts warm air out of the vents even when the dial is set to the coldest position. I often want to drive without my A/C on, or my windows open. The air coming through the vents is probably 10-15 degrees warmer than the outside air. Is this normal? If it is a common problem, can it be fixed?

I figured the vent air is coming from that hot little engine compartment. Would a cold air intake solve this?

I have never had a car that had this problem before so I am perplexed. (And hot)

Thanks in advance.

The cabin air intake is at the base of the windshield (IIRC, somewhere on the right hand side). Even with the fan off, just moving the car is enough to force some air into the intake. It does tend to be slightly warmer than ambient. That's all pretty normal.

Especially if the windows are open, you can set the air to recirc mode to help block up the intake.

Check the fresh air/recirculation lever and switch it to fresh air if the current selection is recirculation.

Cold air intakes are for the engine. Cool air is denser than warm air and in theory this aids combustion (insert Yogi Berra theory/practice quote here).

So I’m stuck with warm air? That sucks. What a bad design from Honda.

BTW, the fresh/recirculation lever is set to fresh. That much I know about.

It's present in all cars. For various reasons, its just more notable in the fit.

A lot more notable is right.

Oh well, thanks for the info.

Do you turn the fan off when you have temp set to cold? I find there is very little airflow with it set to off.

The fan is on.

In the old days, 1990 and before, you could turn on the fan only and get fresh air from the outside. The incoming air was usually very close to the outside temperature when the hot/cold setting was turned all the way "cold". Virtually every car I ever drove was this way.

I guess cars are different now. The Fit is terrible in this respect.

I suspect the main problem is that the ventilation ducts are running through the dashboard, which gets quite warm from the sun coming in the windshield. A sunshield (while parked) would probably help a fair bit, as would putting something more reflective on the top of the dashboard, except that would lead to unacceptable glare and reflections in the windshield while driving.

If you run the vent for awhile, it should eventually stabilize at something not too much higher than the outside temperature. It may take awhile.

I have owned a Fit 2012 for almost a year, put on 5k and still haven't found a setting that uses outside air to circulate while the a/c is off and when you don't need the heat.
Open window creates a lot of noise. Even using the blower fan doesn't get outside air at it's temp, always comes in warm after engine is hot. Does the vent at the rear cargo area exhaust air?

its one lever folks. its either recirculating cabin air, or intaking fresh air.


its been done the same exact way on cars for over 60 years

There was another thread on this.
https://www.fitfreak.net/forums/2nd-...mperature.html
It seems that it might be possible that the little door that blocks off the hot air from the heater core might not be closing all the way. Someone claims to have adjusted the cable for this and remedied the problem.

Yes, it's a problem. I remember snowflakes coming through the dash vents on my father's '78 Accord--that was fresh air!

I suspect that part of the problem is that when the car is new the plastics are still giving off gasses, including those within the vent system, adding to the stuffy air that makes the problem so annoying. My sense is that it becomes less of a problem with time, as the plastic ages, although that takes at least a year. In the meantime, change your cabin filter and clean the inside of your windshield carefully--the gasses seem to condense on these, and you want to remove them. Also, keep the windows down when you park the car if you can.

Let us know if you try adjusting the cable and if this helps.

But I see that you're in Alaska--is warm air really a problem for you this time of the year??

When my Fit is set to cool and complete incoming air the termperature of the air blowing from thedash is pretty much outside air temp. It could be higher thanks to the air flowing over the hot hood.

Are you this big of a jerk in real life? Did you bother reading any of the replies?

Thanks, best answer, didn't think to do a search. My MH was having problems with a/c and it turns out they have a valve that when you change to a/c it is supposed to shut of the water to the heater coil, when it fails the a/c has to put out enough cool air to overcome the heated air. Solution was to put in a valve to turn off the water to to core in a/c weather, hopefully a cable adjustment will do it on the fit.:)

Thanks for the link. I searched for a thread on this but missed this one.

Just as I said, this is NOT normal in cars. The Fit is the first car I've ever driven or ridden in that had this problem.

I knew if I waited long enough someone would come up with the correct answer instead of some of the dumb*ss responses I got earlier.

Sounds like it can be fixed after all.

Mine doesnt push heat. None of my cars ever have. Its always been ambient temp without the temp on red.

Be sure your car wasnt soaking up the sun, plastic retains temperature for quite a while. Sometimes when Im driving a while, ill run AC for 15-20 minutes, then I can shut it off and the air still blows cool for a good 10-15 minutes afterwards. Obviously not icy cold, but much cooler then the 70-80 outside

Unfortunately this IS normal in cars today. The last several cars (well trucks to be exact, the Fit is the first car I've had since my 1980 Toyota Cressida) have this issue. The list of offending vehicles is 1989 Ford Bronco II, 1990 GMC Jimmy 1991 Mazda Navejo (rebadged Ford Explorer), 1994 Ford Ranger, 2001 Nissan Xterra. The list continues with the Fit. The A/C button is the only real solution. I keep a thermometer in my A/C registers the temperature rise is/was a consistant 10*F on all these vehicles.

Air vents, no cool air
 

If you look in the engine compartment of the FIT you will see the cabin air box is about 3inch from the back of the engine. And it gets really hot back there. That's why the cabin air is nice when he engine is cold and hot when the engine has been running. On most cars the cabin air box is not this close to that heat from the engine.