Basic heating and A/C system. The air coming into the car through the vents is always ~20 degrees hotter than the outside air. Winter or "summer" (so far, it's a '13 got last fall).

This is not heat leaking into the passenger compartment from the engine compartment, like a few people have mentioned (they had V8s IIRC). It's only from the vents. Even when driving on the highway at 75mph, outside temp ~70; you'd think you'd be getting a nice breeze, hell I have the windows fully open even, but the air coming in the vents is really warm.

In the winter, outside temp near freezing say, I do have the heat on, but I have to set the temp well into the "blue" to not get fried. And the A/C does work too.

Could my temp control be wacky, such that there's always some heat on, even at the lowest setting (with A/C off)? Or is this normal for this model, wherever the outside air is being routed from, it gets heated by the engine somehow?

I have noticed that my displayed external temp is significantly off what I measure the temp as, using quality instruments. Makes me wonder where the "outside air" is coming from, and where its temp is being measured. Any ideas about this?

The car is stock with barely 1000 miles, everything else seems to be working perfectly, but this ventilation system has been bugging me since practically day 1, and now the weather's warmer it's more of a problem. Thanks.

 

No it is not normal. Outside air for the ventilation system comes from the cowl at the base of the windshield not from under the hood.

The outside temperature comes from a sensor mounted to the inside of the front bumper but it has nothing to do with the HVAC in the base climate control system (although it is used by the dual zone automatic climate control system).

Basic question... why on earth would you not get it fixed under warranty?

 

I would agree seems abnormal! Take it in...

 

Thanks guys. I haven't taken the car in for first service yet. Probably should, but mileage is very low still. I'm just trying to find out if something's wrong, or if I'm doing something wrong...some car models just don't have good ventilation, but apparently not this one.

It's only been the last week that I started thinking that this can't be right. Thanks for the info where the air comes from...makes sense. It really does feel like it's almost the temp of engine compartment air, more hot than warm, I'm going to have a look now to make sure it's not blocked or anything (would be hard to believe).

 

It may not be time for regular scheduled maintenance but you really should take it in and let your Ford dealer take a look at it. It doesn't cost you anything since its still under warranty. It sounds like your gonna wait til the 5000 mi. Check/oil change and by then the problem could be way worse.

 

Could be as simple as the thermostat (if that's what they call it) needs to be replaced. Something isn't working when you turn the ****. Had a similar problem with an F-150. Good luck, and let us know what the dealer does to fix the problem. You never know when we might need the info.

 

Curious - Do you have the standard climate controls or the Electronic Package with dual climate control? And I agree with the other posters - take it in, and don't let them tell you they don't notice anything (ride along with them if you must).

 

I have the same issue, the outside air coming through the vents is always warmer than the actual outside air. For the first 5 minutes or so the air through the vents is down right HOT!! eventually it cools down but is always hotter than the actual outside air temp. I hate to have the dealer mess with it....

 

I don't have the electronic climate control, it's all manual. The temperature **** does work, but even in the Canadian winter (actually, not *that* cold around here) I have to set it just about in the middle (the red/blue break) to keep from getting cooked. This car sure does warm up very quickly, no complaints there, and as mentioned before there's no noticeable "heat leak" from engine to passenger compartment.

But I was looking at how the air gets from the cowl inlet to the vents. I somehow thought the outside air would be coming from the front of the car...like the air for the engine. D'oh! This isn't my first car lol, I'm 57, but I've never had any ventilation/heating/cooling problems so to be honest I never looked into this sort of thing before. I didn't even pay attention to the inlet cowl before, the few times I've had the hood open to check fluids...and just to look.

It seems to me that the way the outside air gets in, it can't help but be somewhat warmed by the engine. The opening is under the windshield-end hood lip, so air would be getting drawn in from across the engine, no?

The thermostat is a possibility. It does seem that *possibly* the air is always getting heated a bit...I like that idea as a good possibility. I'll add that to my notes for service.

I haven't gone in for service yet because I don't really have any worthwhile problems, that I know of, and the mileage is very low. I don't like dealers messing with my cars when they're looking for something, unless it's serious, because invariably the car comes back with something more annoying wrong than it went in with.

 

Hmmm, I'll have to try waiting 5 minutes or more. 30 seconds is about all I could stand so far. It *is* HOT, more hot than warm like I said.

 

Actually, very little of the interior air comes from under the hood - some does but mostly it's from over the hood. The air swirls at the trailing edge of the hood so fresh air is moving over the cowl. Unless you're idling a lot (and I just left my car idling for 90 minutes at an event this morning without experiencing hot air) the intake air will be much closer to ambient temperature than to underhood temperature.

A word of advice... DO NOT give the dealer's service department your ideas about what might be causing any issue. They are the "professionals" and they don't want your diagnosis (it upsets them - especially if you end up being right). Just tell them the symptoms and let them figure it out.

 

^ OK, understood. I can always turn on the A/C of course, but IMO should be unnecessary when temps are less than high 70s ambient, it's not that humid (yet...), and I'm not in traffic.

Edit: got a look in better light, and actually there's no good direct path for the air to come from under the hood to the ventilation cowl, it's sealed/blocked adequately I think. Just to double-stamp what you said before...