Pathy Stuff

Any topics related to 2005-2012 R51

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DanJetta
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Pathy Stuff

Postby DanJetta » Wed Jan 22, 2014 8:34 am

There are a lot of things on the Pathfinder that leave me scratching my head, thinking, "What the hell were they thinking?" None, however, so much as the fact that the climate control's "recirculate" only works when the air is set to blow cold. Why?!?

On the off chance that you're one of those people who doesn't like sucking the fumes of the dump truck in front of you in the winter, you have to turn the heat off and then press recirculate.

- "Daddy, I can't breathe."
- "I know, honey. See, the Pathfinder makes us choose between being able to breathe and being warm. We took a vote and chose 'being warm,' so you're going to have to suck it up. Literally. This will be a good lesson on sacrifice for you and your brother."


skinny2
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Postby skinny2 » Wed Jan 22, 2014 8:59 am

You can also manually switch the mode to blow out the dash and it will allow recirculate. This will keep the heat a blowin at least.

I do this when I see a skunk in the road ahead...hit mode and recirc and all is good. I also do it when I get stuck behind a 4cyl Toyota or Honda because they smell like pure sulphur when accelerating hard (like when climbing hills). The problem is...if you don't get it switched soon enough...you pretty much choke on the fumes for awhile anyway because they just get circulated then.

I think I understand their thought process...recirculate is designed to be used during A/C use and not winter during heating/defrosting. And I've not met a system in years that would let you recirculate while defrosting. But I know there are others that let you hit recirculate regardless unless you have it on defrost.

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disallow
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Postby disallow » Wed Jan 22, 2014 9:32 am

my 05 recirc works no matter what temp you have it set to.

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FLiPMaRC
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Postby FLiPMaRC » Wed Jan 22, 2014 11:23 am

disallow wrote:my 05 recirc works no matter what temp you have it set to.
My 2012 recirculate works at any temp, but only at certain modes. It doesn't work if you set the fan mode to blow to the feet or windshield defrost modes.

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akley88
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Postby akley88 » Wed Jan 22, 2014 12:10 pm

disallow wrote:my 05 recirc works no matter what temp you have it sejt to.
My 08 s seems to auto default to recirculation for every thing and I have to turn it off.

DanJetta
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Joined: Wed Oct 03, 2012 6:47 am

Postby DanJetta » Thu Jan 23, 2014 12:01 pm

Really good points about the mode vs temp thing – and I feel kind of dumb that I haven't checked that. I change the mode with the temp (hot to the floor and cold through the top vents), as does the auto setting, so I just assumed is was a temp thing.

Like Skinny said, all of my other cars have always allowed Recirc for everything except defrost. And in most cars the Recirc is on a timer so it turns off after a certain amount of time.

If there's one thing I would redo it's picking a Pathfinder without the climate control feature. It is such a pain in the ass and we do more wrestling with it than it's worth. The temperature numbers have nothing to do with the temperature of the air that's actually coming from the vents (even in manual). Today's 70 degrees will feel like molten magma is being spewed at you and tomorrow's 70 degrees will feel like an Eskimo fart (cold – Eskimo farts are cold).

skinny2
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Postby skinny2 » Thu Jan 23, 2014 1:10 pm

I've gone to running mine strictly in manual mode and controlling the fan blower speed and air location. It still gets a little goofy sometimes on the air temp but it's not nearly as unpredictable. I tend to adjust the temps once or twice on my hour drive, generally in the 72-75 range. Auto mode would require constant temp adjustments between 68-80 and sometimes max temp when it was super cold

I've owned a lot of cars with the auto climate controls and some are far better than others...but I've always said I would rather have a manual control. My wifes Acura likes to blow full-power with luke-warm air...I would prefer warmer air with less blowing. My Suburban and Dodge Ram actually work pretty good on auto.


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