With the air off, just on vent - it seems like the air coming from the vents is hotter than it should be. Yes, it's hot as heck here in Alabama lately, but I've noticed more than once that the air coming from the vents is noticeably warmer than the air outside. This is during evening or morning rides when it isn't crazy hot outside.
Shouldn't vent be basically the same temp as the outside air? (with temp know all the way on the cool side)

 

Probably not. The ducts are whatever temperature the cabin was before you started the car. The same is true of the a/c and heater. And when the blend door is put in 'idle', it puts it in full heat mode. You are running air from the outside through the warm-hot duct and then through the warm-hot heater, which can't get cooled down... and in fact, even though there's ONE shut off valve in the system, there's not TWO... so there's convection heating of that heater through the water system, if nothing else.

It sucks. Has ever since they came up with the integrated a/c-heater central air system in, what... '67 or so? I miss the old style '64.5-66 ducts in the corners...

/event a '66 Thunderbird has vents.. and has them in the rear window too.

 

Mine's the same way when it's hot outside. I'm not sure of the path the air travels, but I think it's normal.

 

I'd have to disagree with houtex on this one.

My '91 Mustang has very cool air when I use the vent.

My '06 has warm to hot air when I use the vent. It's been that way for a long time now.

It wasn't that way when I first drove the car (like the first year or so) but it happened a couple years ago and it's been the same ever since... the vent is basically useless in my '06... sounds like the same thing happened to yours.

If you find the fix please let me know!

 

turn the air on!

 

Were you part of the vent design team? Sounds like it

 

I used to have a 95 v8 thunderbird. When I had the heat on before turning the a/c off when driving the car I always noticed it got alot hotter a lot quicker even though it wasn't on, but if I had turned the heat all the way back down to cold air temps before I turned the a/c off it would blow out cool air even though it wasn't on. It seemed like whatever temp I had it set at before I turned it off, it dictated what temp air came in if the a/c was off.


**** did that even make sense? :-)

 

Meh. All that work, and then I just now realized we're talking 'Fan on, vent only."

Shoot me now... I coulda been doin' something else.

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However... hang on...

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Okies... I'm not saying I'm right or not, but... if you go to http://www.fordparts.com and poke about comparing the HVAC systems of the two models, you'll see that how they're made is *really* different... so different that I'm not terribly sure what's going on with the '05-11s, but I can say this: If you tell the '91 to be Fan On/Vent Only/Cold, then the blend door is going to *shut off* the heater, unless it's broken... and I have a hunch that gravity will also send it down, because the door flops onto the heater to shut it off.

Wheras the '06 system is... really weird looking, and it may be that the way it's made there's no way to avoid heat. I can't get in it to see at that site... but looking at the way the hoses for both the heater and the A/C... looks like the A/C evaporator is the last thing the air goes through before hitting the distribution plenums. I also had to look at this stuff in here: http://iihs.net/fsm/?dir=0 and kinda put two and two together on that. Ugh.

The heater core is... on the side? Unless there's some bendy shenannigans on the heater core, I don't know how in the world any air goes past it. I can't find the inside of that box, so I can't say for sure what's going on.

Suffice it to say, they're way different, so the whole '91 vs' 06? Probably not the best argument. Kinda like saying a Ford 4.0 V6 has the same timing as a Ford 4.6 V8, ya ask me.

 

I'm not saying they aren't different, I'm sure the design is WAAAY different... what I'm saying is that it shouldn't be "normal" for vent air to be hot or warm.

If they could do it 20 years ago they sure as hell should be able to do it now.

 

I'm just glad to know I'm not crazy... I've only had the car about a month, so the temp control **** has never been anywhere but "full cool". If the A/C is on, it does a great job - but if the A/C isn't on, the best I can hope for is warm air from the vents, even if the outside temp is relatively cool. Pretty frustrating, especially with my all black interior that seems to create it's own heat!

 

I'm with ya man... I'm with ya.

 

Agreed. So why is it thus? That is the true question... one that is probably not answerable without someone gettin into the thing and seeing why directly.

 

agreed on hot air coming from vents when system is off and fan is 1 position.. i have 2005 mustang gt and thought that replacing blend door actuator (one of three actuators) might solve problem but based on this thread it seems unfixable

 

LOL.

 

i spoke with my mechanic yesterday and he suggested turning on the recirculating button which should theoretically draw air from the cabin ..will give it a try

 

I was laughing because this thread is over 5 years old. You're probably talking to ghosts.

 

Old thread or not I've yet to own any car where just using the vent option delivers the same temp as outdoors. It's always a little warmer.