My feet are freezing!

[WannabeOwner]

I can distinctly feel the car blows hot or cold air when I'm on fresh or recirc, respectively, when the cabin temp is near the setpoint

That's been my experience too. I haven't experimented with this in ernest, yet, but when my Wife finds her feet are cold she turns up the temperature on the passenger side by a couple of degrees and it seems to me that I then freeze! - cold air compensating for the heat gain on the other side perhaps.

When I'm next out in the car alone I'll turn the passenger side up significantly ... but I am running out of cold weather testing chances here in UK until next Winter.

My accurate logging temperature sensor is bust, otherwise I'd have some decent data to go on rather than just my subjective view.

 

[Lex]

Thanks for some good ideas here for me to try next time.

For the record I made a point of mentioning this issue on my last service visit, but was told that it was functioning "normally" ie. exactly like every other Model S...

 

[WannabeOwner]

I made a point of mentioning this issue on my last service visit, but was told that it was functioning "normally"

Car is in for service just now, but they have told me that they found that the air pipe to driver side was not perfectly connected and that they have corrected that, together with a change to the "direction" that the air flow points. (I've been able to feel heat coming out of the foot vent, but it has been directed towards the back of the car, thus not going towards my feet at the front of the footwell.)

Hopefully I'll notice a difference when the car comes back.

 

[Lasttoy]

I just picked my 2013, zero heat. HQ told me take to SC. I called, zero explamination. No today. No return call from SC in JAX.

 

[SucreTease]

I've been having the same problem with a cold right foot in my December 2017 build Model S. It is only my right foot. Upon some analysis, I have found that it is due to a cold air draft around the accelerator pedal. I can feel it when I reach down with my hand while driving (not easy to do while driving and having to be able to see the road). I will have report this when I take in my car. I don't know all the holes in the firewall which could be responsible for this.

 

[ahirbe]

I haven't talked with my SC yet about the issue, but having a 2014 I thought that I would already have the newer cover for the footwell...maybe not. I have resorted to proper winter driving shoes for the model s (thick wool socks and slippers) they work well and I change at work into my dress shoes. Im sure these will be all the rage in the northern markets soon, Im just a trend setter.
On a more serious note...would adding a bunch of blankets or towels to the frunk to lessen the cold air dead space up there do any good? I don't use it much and it seems it might lessen the cold? Im no thermodynamicist...

 

[SucreTease]

I haven't talked with my SC yet about the issue, but having a 2014 I thought that I would already have the newer cover for the footwell...maybe not

"newer cover"?

 

[ahirbe]

"newer cover"?

yeah, it was mentioned a few pages back that there is a newer vent cover for the footwell.

 

[Lex]

I still have this, might try to add some firewall insulation once out of warranty but in the meantime I've simply abandoned "Auto" setting for the winter and drive the air only to the floor. It's not ideal: still not providing total foot comfort, and in some conditions I get foggy windows and need to play around with the settings, but it's way more effective than the Auto setting which almost never (if ever ?) sets the heat only to the floor.

 

[David29]

I wonder how well these suggestions work now that it is so much more difficult to make manual adjustments to the HVAC.

 

[Lex]

I wonder how well these suggestions work now that it is so much more difficult to make manual adjustments to the HVAC.

Good point.. I for one don't bother doing what I said above anymore, now I just suffer the cold feet. Thankfully I don't do much long distance traveling in the winter though.