Retarded climate control

[Zissou]

If that were my car I'd be scheduling a trip to the dealership to get it fixed under warranty.

 

[jodyr]

yeah common 16 issue google searches tell me. one dude on another forum apparently had his replaced 3 times and now hes pursuing a lemon law claim.

impression he got from his experience is that ford has no idea what the problem is.

That's why I'm not going to mess with it. It sounds like it's going to be even more frustrating to deal with the dealer on it.

 

[Paintedfist]

as i mentioned in another thread. try this...

get on the freeway. turn on cruise. press the off button on the climate control and wait.

shit will turn itself on

 

[Samgoody14]

My '16 does the same thing. I take it off auto turn it up to 85 and set the fan at 2. Seems to work for me. For all the research I have done Ford has no clue on a fix so I'm not even going to bother bringing it to the dealer. I mean it only gets below 0 here a couple of times a year.

 

[IrishST]

Here is the thread in the warranty section on this forum about others, including myself, with the issue:

http://www.fiestast.org/forum/fiesta-st-discussions/5915-climate-control-heater-issue.html

Mine doesn't work properly on manual mode, either. The actual settings seem to vary each and every time I drive the car, but the general idea is that manually setting it from 81-85 blows out barely above cold air, setting it to HI blows out stupid hot air, setting it to 80 or below blows out full on A/C cold air, even if the A/C switch isn't pressed. Sometimes I can start the car and it will work normally, but only for that drive and if I stop/start it again without letting it fully sit and get cold again it doesn't work. Example, I picked my kid up from school today and from home to school, a 3.5 mile drive, it worked. He is in preschool so I have to go to his class to get him and when I turned the car back on to leave, 5 minutes after turning it off, the climate control wouldn't work and wouldn't blow warm air on anything less than HI.

If AUTO didn't work but I could manually control it, I would be more on board with riding it out until an official recall or TSB is released from Ford, but in my case, and many others based on this forum, other forums, and Reddit, manual control doesn't work right either. Leaving it on HI isn't realistic because the car is sauna hot inside 10 minutes and you have to turn it completely off which then makes it freezing cold 5-10 minutes later and windows start fogging and crap. I'm not cool with playing that game every time I drive the car in cold weather. Not to mention, I don't think it's too much to ask for the climate control in a brand new car, economy platform or not, to work right.

What kills me is that people driving '14s and '15s don't seem to have the issue. Aren't issues supposed to lessen as a car continues its production run? How the hell does something like this happen between '15 and '16 when nothing in the car was actually changed and the same auto climate system has been there since day one? My guess is one of the following:

1. Ford got a bad batch of parts and it was used both in new vehicle builds and is ALSO being used for the replacements that aren't fixing anything.
2. Being an automatic system there are temp sensors to judge the outside/inside air temps and I imagine this is monitored by either the ECU, or another computer, and that computer, or programming routine in the ECU, isn't doing its job right and needs to be updated which is why part swapping isn't doing anything.

I just dropped my car off today so I'll see what happens, but reading other peoples experiences on '16 models with the same issue doesn't give me the warm and fuzzies. Like I said above, if my manual control worked normally all the time I wouldn't be so irritated, but for the entire system to not work right and for my car to have 130 miles on it and be in my possession for 4 days before having to go into the shop pisses me the hell off. I'm even more mad because I noticed this issue before I bought it and raised concern, but being a former auto tech I never imagined it would be more than a basic temp sensor replacement or something. Buying the car knowing the issue was there is on me and it's my fault I assumed it would be a quick fix, but the rest is on Ford and I really, really, really hope they devote some engineer time to fixing this.

Side note - I got to sit in a Fiesta Titanium on the lot and confirmed it was doing the exact same thing as my car so I've personally seen it on two vehicles and read accounts from a bunch of people on forums and whatnot that have the issue meaning it is probably pretty wide spread considering how many people never go to forums to talk about their issues.

EDIT:

I also assume this will be an issue in the warmer months because the cold isn't regulated at all, it's just full on freezing. I can't speak for everyone, but I know when it's hot out I'll turn my A/C on max for a bit to cool the car off and then turn the temp up so I don't get hypothermia. If the A/C has one temp setting of "REALLY FREAKING COLD" that's almost as big of a problem as the heat not working right if you live in an area with hot/humid summers like I do because driving without A/C = covered in sweat and driving with full max A/C at all times isn't really a good idea either so you're right back to constantly having to turn it on and off again to keep the temperature somewhat under control.

 

[jayrod1980]

Just chiming in to relay I have the same issue as Irish. It's a widespread 2016 issue

 

[Paintedfist]

any updates on progress on this?

 

[IrishST]

any updates on progress on this?

There's a thread in the warranty sub forum about this issue too and one user reported their dealer got it fixed. The final part replaced was the entire freaking evaporator core and housing. Whether that was the only thing that needed to be replaced or if it was that combined with other things is not really clear.

My dealer hasn't replaced anything yet and after having my car for a few days while talking to Ford told me that Ford issued them a flat out "do not attempt to repair" order. They said engineering is aware of the issue with 2016 models but they don't have a confirmed fix yet and a TSB or recall will be issued when they figure it out. If I haven't heard anything new in a few more days I'm going to reach out to them and see what's going on.

 

[jayrod1980]

I sanded down and applied dielectric grease to 6 ground points that I could find. The result? Car starts faster, feels better... But issue persists and it did something weird today. I did my normal tests to see if the air would blow cold after a brief stop/exit of the vehicle. Today was an unusually warm, 80 degree winter day in Vegas so I had the AC on auto and 75 degrees. When I started back up the air blew a little harder but more or less settled down. To test it, I turned the temp up to 80. Well... Air comes on full blast and freezing cold. That's right, after turning up the temperature. This is something more messed up than just bad grounding.

 

[kivnul]

Fixed.

There is a Service update for this problem. SSM 45658. It is a software update for the cars computer that seems to have fixed this problem.

see:
http://www.fiestastforum.com/forum/threads/7315-Climate-Control-Heater-Issue/page12

 

[cversion7]

Glad I finally decided to search about this issue. I got my 16 in June and even though it is often over 100 degrees F in Houston, the AC just gets way too cold. I guess I will have to chance it with the dealer and this SSM :/

 

[OCS12]

I'm another '16 owner with this issue. I've learned to deal with it, but it goes in for the fix next week. So I'll be a FoST guy for a day. (It's great being able to pick from fun cars as loaners!)

 

[cversion7]

Just had the software fix done and it still wasn't working correctly on the way home. The Service Writer told me the tech said it might not fix the issue based on internal notes related to the SSM. :/

 

[Turbo65]

That's strange, I had the software update done on mine and it's worked fine ever since about 4 months. I checked the fan relay issue and my October build 16 model year already had it installed

 

[cversion7]

That's strange, I had the software update done on mine and it's worked fine ever since about 4 months. I checked the fan relay issue and my October build 16 model year already had it installed

I will be testing it out some more, next time I drive it. :/

 

[Maxpowa]

My problems started when I changed the cabin filter of my '15. The damn AC is stuck in recirculate no matter what setting I have the system in (auto, manual, high fan speed, low fan speed, high temperature setting, low temp. setting, any direction). The only way I can get the car to draw outside air is if I switch the A/C button OFF, then the recirculation door closes and draws outside air. Wondering if it's something I did when I changed the filter. I used a Ford filter and made sure to reconnect everything when I was done. Ideas?

 

[parapraxis24]

My problems started when I changed the cabin filter of my '15. The damn AC is stuck in recirculate no matter what setting I have the system in (auto, manual, high fan speed, low fan speed, high temperature setting, low temp. setting, any direction). The only way I can get the car to draw outside air is if I switch the A/C button OFF, then the recirculation door closes and draws outside air. Wondering if it's something I did when I changed the filter. I used a Ford filter and made sure to reconnect everything when I was done. Ideas?

I've noticed this, too. When I switch the AC off before shutting the car down is the only time it will switch to draw in outside air. When it's on auto hitting the circulate button doesn't appear to change anything.

 

[Maxpowa]

I've noticed this, too. When I switch the AC off before shutting the car down is the only time it will switch to draw in outside air. When it's on auto hitting the circulate button doesn't appear to change anything.

Odd isn't it? Did you also change your filter or is this something you've noticed all along? Also, my system does this regardless of whether or not it's in auto or manual. If the A/C is on, the door is closed to re-circulate, period. That doesn't seem right...

 

[parapraxis24]

Odd isn't it? Did you also change your filter or is this something you've noticed all along? Also, my system does this regardless of whether or not it's in auto or manual. If the A/C is on, the door is closed to re-circulate, period. That doesn't seem right...

I only started noticing it in the last few months, tbh. Only when I started turning the AC off before stopping the car and blasting the fan at full speed did I notice it actually change over to outside air.

I then tried hitting the button with the AC on and noticed that nothing changes at all.

 

[Maxpowa]

I only started noticing it in the last few months, tbh. Only when I started turning the AC off before stopping the car and blasting the fan at full speed did I notice it actually change over to outside air.

I then tried hitting the button with the AC on and noticed that nothing changes at all.

Car's at the dealership for the problem. Will report back once they give me a call.