[Madeline]

I'd like to be able to get rid of the thermostat function of the climate control. What I want is to set a temperature for the air coming out, and then have the car never ever change that temperature. When I'm enjoying the warm air I don't ever want it to switch to the cool air.

Is there a chip I can take out or break to remove this function, while leaving the ability to change the air temperature routed through the car?

 

[b1shmu63]

Madeline, the short answer is no.......

Without electronic intervention the temperature would vary wildly. You could possibly remove the temperature control knob, but why not just set it and forget it?

 

[Madeline]

... why not just set it and forget it?

Because as I said, I don't want cold air blowing on me.

I had an '83 Volvo that had this down: move bar along slider to change the mix of warm/cold air coming through. I'm thinking about this because I recently swapped cars with a friend so I could drive my parents around Napa... His POS early 90s Saturn that was worthless in all other ways had Honda beat when it came to having a simple comfortable air mix regulator, like my ancient Volvo from before the dawn of computers. Pretty sad to be beaten by a Saturn.

It seemed to me that the air mix regulator might be a lower sub system of the thermostat function, which would have been added on later for people who didn't want to change the knob themselves when they were getting too warm. It would probably take a lot of knowledge of the electronics to figure the circuits out, and this seems like the most likely place to find people with that depth of knowledge.

 

[Dougie]

I know exactly what you're saying. These new-fangled cars with thermostatically controller heaters never seem to be happy just blowing mildly warm (or cool) air. I fight this all the time.

My latest strategies include:

- OFF, AUTO, OFF, ECON, ECON, 68 degrees. This seems to work fairly well. I point the left-hand face vent towards the window so I'm not getting the blast of warm/cool air directly. You have to do the OFF, AUTO, OFF sequence to clear out any previous settings.

- Same, plus FAN. The fan at low speed is pretty wimpy so it's not as troublesome.

- 68 degrees, OFF. The thermostat still works (I think) with the heater off, so you get the temperature you want but without the fan.

I haven't gotten these perfected yet, but at least they are other control options:

- Put a piece of notebook paper over the sun sensor (bump on top of dashboard at center close to the windshield). The heater thinks the sun isn't out.

- Ditto with the air intake grill (on the dashboard). You might be able to get additional control this way, too.

 

[flunkysama]

For starters, I would replace the interior temperature sensor with a resistor or pot so that the climate control thinks it's always 75 degrees inside your car. I don't know all the logic of the climate control system so I can not say for sure that it is the only input the climate control uses when adjusting the door that controls the amount of air the through or around the heater core.

 

[Dougie]

It at least uses the solar sensor and the coolant temperature, and probably the outside temperature.

I had good luck today in ECON A/C OFF at 66 degrees mode today, with the eyeball vents pointed away.