Stratification wheel

[bmwmike]

My F10 blows icy cold from the centre vents even if the stratification wheel is set to red. I don't think it's always been like that and I'm sure if it's on red it should be blowing warmer air or at least not full on AC air if the AC is set to 20c?

E.g. Turning it from blue to red makes it icy cold to not quite icy but still very cold, so it does do something.

Is this a fault or is icy air from the face vents correct for 20c target temp when outside is 23c? It just seems too cold.

Thanks

[d_a_n1979]

Anything to do with your settings on iDrive?

[bmwmike]

d_a_n1979 said:

Anything to do with your settings on iDrive?

Don't think so.. have had the car 7 years and don't think it's always done this. I never touch anything to do with climate in idrive.

[E-bmw]

bmwmike said:

Is this a fault or is icy air from the face vents correct for 20c target temp when outside is 23c? It just seems too cold.

Thanks

I could be misunderstanding but surely if your temp is set at 20 & the temp outside is 23, then the A/C will be on cold.

[bmwmike]

E-bmw said:

I could be misunderstanding but surely if your temp is set at 20 & the temp outside is 23, then the A/C will be on cold.

Yep agree and that makes sense but the little blend wheel is supposed to control only the face level (dash) vents warmer or colder independently of the rest of the climate control. It's fairly pointless imo, and I guess it's working of a sort as blue is ice cold and red is less ice cold but still freezing. It's just surprising how cold the red setting is, and I thought it blended outside fresh air which should be 23c. I'm wondering if it needs calibrating somehow.

[RECr]

Normally that blend wheel is used to allow cool air on face vents with warm air on other outlets, so if A/c is on and it's warm outside I'd imagine the face vents would still blow cold.

Thinking about it, in warm weather, moving the blend knob away from blue causes the air flow from the face vents to reduce, and the temperature to increase a little but not much in my 3 series

[Pica-Pica]

Obviously I have never measured the face vent temperature, but mine seems to work to my satisfaction (F30 335d). I usually have it in the centre (where red and blue meet) for normal comfort, or full blue if I want to cool my face off. Not really sure what happens on full red, tbh.

[E-bmw]

bmwmike said:

E-bmw said:

I could be misunderstanding but surely if your temp is set at 20 & the temp outside is 23, then the A/C will be on cold.

Yep agree and that makes sense but the little blend wheel is supposed to control only the face level (dash) vents warmer or colder independently of the rest of the climate control. It's fairly pointless imo, and I guess it's working of a sort as blue is ice cold and red is less ice cold but still freezing. It's just surprising how cold the red setting is, and I thought it blended outside fresh air which should be 23c. I'm wondering if it needs calibrating somehow.

Perhaps the face vents ONLY allow cool/unheated air, as to keep the driver alert, the last thing you need is warm air on your face, perhaps the manual has more info?