I recently bought a facelift 98 SL320 ...

A few years back, I had 97 SL280 and my recollection of the climate control seems a little different.

On the old car, I could get quite a strong flow of air from the central vents. In the newer car, on automatic settings, the centre vents never see to put out a strong flow of air, at any temperature even with the fan on full.

The outside temperature when I've been trying these things has been about 10 centigrade.

Is the climate control system being intelligent and deciding that air should not be pushed through those vents because the outside temperature is relatively cold?

Do I have a faulty unit?

I should mention that the temperature of the car is comfortable, I just wondering whether or not with a 25 degree outside temperature, will I get a nice icy blast from the AC centre vents in the summer.

Thanks for any help!

Leon

 

The whole point of the automatic climate control operation is that it maintains the temperature without drawing attention to itself, a far cry from the "max" settings on cheaper cars. The only time you will feel strong airflow on auto is when the internal temperature is well above the temperature set, the climate control will blow cold air to cool you down.

To test it, try running a domestic fan heater or hair dryer in the car; set the climate control to a low temperature and you should find the climate control fights back with a blast of cold air. If not, your system may need checking over and maybe re-pressurising.

You can of course use manual operation to override and you can also press the blue button on the centre vent to cause cooled air to be blown towards your face.

 

On a very cold setting with full fan speed you should get quite a rush of air from the vents. Try also turning on the "recirculate" option--which should make the air flow even more strong.

If you're on full fan, and nothing seems to be coming out although you can hear *a lot* of air moving, then you might need to pay a visit to your dealer. My SL started losing control of the vent open/close mechanism recently and would blow lots of air--just none would come out of the vents!

 

Thanks everybody...

99SL - I think that's what might be happening here... the climate controls the fan nicely, but I think it intermittently loses control of the vents...

Was it an expensive fix?

Leon

 

well, I can't really say--it was repaired under warranty. I can say that they tried replacing the control unit itself, which didn't fix the problem. After that, they replaced something actually inside the vent because my whole center vent assembly was replaced.

My problem also started happening after the car was running for a while. It would start fine, and then after about 20 minutes just stop blowing air. I could see the fan creeping up in speed but since no air was moving it would eventually get to full speed (and I would be feeling a bit chilly!)

After the dealer replaced the main control unit, no air would blow even after startup. One symptom was the fact that both lights would illuminate on the center dash (both for hot and cold). Now that's not a good sign :-/