Climate control - How to get a consistent temperature?

[dbtor]

I'm driving a 2021 MIC SR+ and I cannot simply set the climate control to a temperature and leave it. I have to adjust it by .5 or 1 degree as it fluctuates between too hot and too cold. In my old ICE car within a week or 2 of ownership I discovered I liked it at 21 degrees and never had to change the temperature again.

Does anyone else have this problem? How do you set the climate to ensure a consistent, comfortable temperature?

 

[Limey]

Yep, it's crap. It knows the outside temp is 18, but once it warms the cabin upto 20, it doesn't need to turn the air--con on, it could use ambient temps, use less power and require fewer adjustments.

I turn AC off alot now.

 

[Neilio]

It's not a very good system to be fair. You won't get a consistent temp like you would on, say a Merc. It's adjust and adapt I'm afraid. Maybe using manual controls might be better?

I wonder if having a glass roof makes calculations of ambient more difficult? Either way its a shame. Another one of those things that traditional manufacturers have nailed and Tesla need to work on.

 

[bay74]

I've also never been happy with the climate control in the Tesla.

Any time the sun comes out one needs to decrease the temperature set-point to take account of the baking radiation from the glass roof. And I also want to be able to disable the heater like I can the AC, i.e. set to e.g. 22*C and cool to that, but if it's a cool morning don't for the love of the flying spaghetti monster heat the air which will in short order be warm enough anyway. Let me enjoy the cool for a bit, just give me outside air with no heat or AC. As it is, the only way to disable the heater is to set the temperature to LOW, but then every time the AC comes on (which it seems to do as the result of a mysterious range of buttons) LOW is obviously inappropriate so I have to faff around setting the temperature back to something reasonable.

Ugh.
/rant
Sorry.

 

[Andy_T_73]

I've never found any car I can set and forget. Every car I've had with climate control (BMW, Volvo, Honda, Merc, VW, Mazda thinking back) has needed the temp adjusting up or down a bit. My Model 3 is much the same.

 

[Neilio]

I've never found any car I can set and forget. Every car I've had with climate control (BMW, Volvo, Honda, Merc, VW, Mazda thinking back) has needed the temp adjusting up or down a bit. My Model 3 is much the same.

I’ve had plenty. Both hire cars and cars I’ve owned. For a modern car the model 3 acts like a 30 year old air con system

 

[GRiLLA]

For contrast, I've never changed my temperature from 20 since the day I got it. Never felt uncomfortable.

Yes when it's very sunny on your arm it will feel hotter, but the air temperature of the car doesn't seem to change enough that I notice.

 

[Nick77]

20c is perfect for auto,l apart from really hot days.

I don't usually have it on unless it's too warm though. I just open the windows. Helps with efficiency! Extra drag doesn't seem to affect it, I can get over 100% without AC on.

 

[rjpjnk]

After 2 months of trying to live with the climate control in my Model Y I am convinced it sucks. It is impossible to use any one temperature and expect to stay comfortable. My previous cars (Honda, Toyota) all were much more consistent by comparison. I tried to get Tesla to fix it but they say it is working normally. I sent them pictures I took showing the cabin temperature varying from 70F to 80F at different times of the day with the set point at 74 and they still are not convinced there is a problem because their remote diagnostics see no errors in the log files.

Hey Tesla! It's hot outside, my AC is on and the car is blowing heated air in my face!

How can this be "normal"?

 

[Cnixon]

For the first couple of months I tore my hair out with it fluctuating at 22c and blowing freezing air out. Now I must have got used to it. Every now and again it does something random. I have the recirc set to auto (press 2 times like rear seat button) that may help.

 

[Durzel]

For contrast, I've never changed my temperature from 20 since the day I got it. Never felt uncomfortable.

Yes when it's very sunny on your arm it will feel hotter, but the air temperature of the car doesn't seem to change enough that I notice.

Was going to say the same. I leave mine on 20C and I can definitely feel the difference on the odd occasion I put it on 19C.

I have them linked, for what that’s worth, instead of dual zone.

 

[jaz4uk1]

Last 6 cars have been BMW soft tops so never really used the AC, not auto but manual low fan drop the top and cold fan and temp full on. Only use ac to demist.

After fiddling a bit and screen misting up for the past month I have had the 3LR AC off, manual, fan 1 at 20oC screen and floor, Seems to keep it at a constant temp. Possibly blows cool on the feet at times.

One comment is that you cant adjust the flows between the 3 positions or a different temperature to the front.

 

[kelvin 660]

I noticed yesterday that if there is no passenger then the air is turned off on that side. I don't think that happened in my MIU car!
Would be nice to have a button to manually turn off the passenger side to appease the wifey...

 

[NewbieT]

I thought my 2019 Model 3 was good/ok. 2021 Model 3 definitely seems a bit off (yes it’s had the sensor fix/recall done).

 

[mikeyg_ev]

Mine 2021 m3 is fine in the front. Fan speed is a bit high on auto for my preference but usually I just leave it on 19deg.
But everyone in the back always complains of a cold draught. I've just had to get in the habit of turning off the rear vents whenever anyone gets in the back seats.

 

[Irata]

I noticed yesterday that if there is no passenger then the air is turned off on that side. I don't think that happened in my MIU car!
Would be nice to have a button to manually turn off the passenger side to appease the wifey...

The MIU cars do exactly the same, no passenger and the vents that side don't turn on. Although I click the screen to turn them back on, because I find that balances the temperature better.

 

[Jason71]

I noticed yesterday that if there is no passenger then the air is turned off on that side. I don't think that happened in my MIU car!
Would be nice to have a button to manually turn off the passenger side to appease the wifey...

correct. there was no way to turn off one side of (at least) the face vents in the original Freemont cars. They added it for the Y then to the 3 during the refresh at the end of 2020. I had assumed that they also put in a way to do it manually at the same time. I mean why wouldn't you now the hardware supports it? less software development time on FSD more on stuff people actually want please!

 

[Nick77]

I've still found no way to turn off the passenger vent on mine, which seems permanently on with no-one in it. Very occasionally it'll randomly turn off, but no matter what settings I choose (sync on/off etc) it's always on. Completely opposite to what others have reported.

 

[MrBadger]

The MIU cars do exactly the same, no passenger and the vents that side don't turn on. Although I click the screen to turn them back on, because I find that balances the temperature better.

Are you now saying that with no one in passenger seat for a non heat pump Fremont built car that passenger side HVAC is disabled?

I thought that functionality was only possible in heat pump (possibly more accurate the Octovalve) based cars. I would be delighted if that was not the case and was one of the many ‘winter improvements’ that we had this year. I agree, ability to manually turn off one side or other may be useful.

Another feature is are seat heaters now inactive if no one sitting in that seat. They seem now to be saved with driver profile which I think is new but may be wrong on that as only noticed it the once.

I had fun this morning trying to voice activate the heated wing mirrors. I gave up after it tried to navigate me to somewhere in US. Odd climate conditions this morning with door mirrors misting up part way through the drive so no usable rear view through them. In the end I succumbed to manually pressing rear screen demist which seemed to do the trick.