the air conditioner works great except for one time...when you press the "rest" button. it is the same button for "econ". this feature allows you to leave your car's air conditioning on while at the store, school etc for an hour or so and when you come back your car is still cool or hot.


since spring classes are here, i'm only taking one class which lasts for about an hour. i decided to use this feature and as a result i got a stinky car. it really stinks. i don't know why. as if something died. but when running the car with the other air conditioning buttons i get a nice clean air flow.

did any of you experience this? is this normal or should i take it to dealer? so far i tried it 5 times to see if it goes away and without success.

 

gonna try it today, i will get back to u

Mike

 

ows??? is this d purpose for the rest/econ button??? i didnt know it.

wont using that blower for an hour drain the car's battery?

 

I used this feature on mine this winter. It worked great sucking residual heat from the engine and keeping the interior somewhat warm. But I do believe that this feature is connected to a battery voltage sensor so you won't drain the battery. It also lasts only about 30 minutes. In addition it does not run the AC, it only covers ventilation. This is per page 156 of my 03 FM. If the real world experience is different please educate us.

 

do you think that since it only ventilates it brings in crappy air from the parking garage i'm at? all those car fumes could do it....


i'm brining my car in for wheel alignment next week (nothing to do from the car itself but from the sucky roads michigan and ohio have). maybe they'll find something.

 

amdeutsch is correct - it is only running the fan for 30min. It worked pretty well during the winter (could not have lived without it here in MI this winter), but during hot days it is "only" clearing the hot and stale aire for mentioned 30min.
I am also convinced that the smell is coming from the parking garage - all these cars and their fumes...

 

IMHO, I bet is a stengy smell from the water condensation in your evaporator. Since it is cold and blowing humid air from outside. On the ML I get a stengy odor when driving without the 'Recirc' feature on and then parking it. When I come back and tun the AC on for a few seconds the air blown smells weird. Then it goes away.

This or you could be right, and your car is storing all this fumes inside...

 

I'll try it tomorrow...
its gonna be probably around 32C tomorrow... I'm expecting to get a cool car instead of a very hot one that u can't even touch the steering wheel!

 

rest function is only good for heat.

can i give my theory? I've tried this before too.

the AC compressor does not work with the REST feature. using the function during the summer **may** suck in some residual "coldness", however. That smell may be the moldy stuff people get when they dont run the compressor.

I get that smell a lot when I run the ventilation in EC mode

 

I tried it this morning. It was around 34C out side and I had the AC on all the time of course.
I parked my car at college… pressed the reset button and left it there for few minutes, there was no lecture so I went back to it.

There was still some cool air coming… but maybe that happened cuz I had the AC on before and that was the cool air left in the car?
The air wasn’t strong. The car was hot from the inside… so I see good in this reset button.