vims430

i have never had any issues with my s430's AC. however yesterday i noticed that really hot air was blowing at my feet when driving. the center vents, windshield vent were normal. i am not sure if i hit a button or something. same issue happened today. i notice if i turn down the driver side thermostat to 55 degrees, then the air at my feet is not as hot, but certainly not cold. engine temperature is normal.

any suggestions?

thanks,

vim

DrJfrmLA

The engineers that designed the W220 figured hot air in your face would put you to sleep at the wheel, so the dash vents don't put out hot air when your system is heating. The breath of hell you feel at your feet will rise and warm the rest of the cabin and the warmish fan air will circulate it. Particularly first thing after a cold night you'll get the hot foot for a while, but then the air will begin to cool as the cabin warms up.

Think about it: a dose of air as hot as what is blowing in the foot wells would chap your face in about five minutes and probably not warm the cabin any quicker. If you need heat, turn on the seat heaters.

Just set the automatic temp where you want the cabin to be and fuggitaboutit. The car is a lot smarter than I am about stuff like that, so I let it figure it out. I haven't touched the AC settings in a year.

Cheers.

Quadcammer

thats true. With my 210, I still had to play around with the settings a lot.

This is truly the Ronco "set-it-and-forget-it" version. I have the temp set at 72, blowers and vents set to auto, and it warms up quickly and evenly. I do get a little air blowing at my face, but thats ok.

S500 Man

lol yes auto setting is a must lol

vims430

no, i think something is off. the air blowing at my feet is so hot its unbearable. only if wear long pants and closed shoes is it bearable. i have had the car for 18 months with no issue, it just started three days ago and continues. i have tried every auto setting i can find and its still boiling hot at my feet.

v.

Quadcammer

ok, try taking it off auto, and put it on the manual setting to see if you can get air blowing at your face. If so, you got me. If not, you may have a flap issue

S5504U2NV

Adjust the wheel in the middle of the dash goes from Blue lines to the auto. Put it on the white lines not necessarily auto and it should do the trick The blue ones are for the A/C I figured that out the first summer I had my W220 as it's hotter than hell in Florida.

elbe

My system must be reversed. I get hot air out of the side vents and cold air at the feet no matter if in automatic or manual mode. Sure looks like a vent flap problem to me.

vims430

so the issue with my hot air at the feet still continues.

if i set the temp to LO, cold air comes out, if i set it one degree higher, i think its 55 degrees, its still cold but not as cold as LO. anywhere close to 60 or over, i get hot air.

here's what i have been doing the last few years. in an effort to save my AC i simply turn off the AC unit by press the "0" button on the AC console during the cold months and then set the console to a very low temp. the estimate to fix was too high for a seven year old car.

i also tried changing from Fahrenheit to Celsius, but no luck. on occasion i can "fix" the system by playing with Auto and the dials at the top but inevitably it goes back. in any event i decided i was wasting too much time screwing with this overly complicated mechanism and have been living with my solution for the last couple of years.

vm

Becks Imports

The problem is most likely your duovalve. It's about a $500 fix. With my car, the center vents would blow whatever temp I set them to, but the side and floor vents would only blow full hot. The duovalve fixed it.

Other possibilities are bad HVAC head unit, flap/blend motors not operating, interior temp sensor up near rearview mirror, or sun sensor in engine bay area.

Bruce