sarge43

New member here. Quick question about this button: Has anyone noticed that this button is in the recirc mode every time the car is started regardless of the position/setting it was in when the car was turned off?
(i.e. If the climate system was in manual mode with the button in the fresh air position (or really any other position) when the car was turned off, the system is in the recirc setting after the car is started). It's a bit of a pain to have to remember to adjust the button.

I've been reviewing this forum (and others on the web) since I received my '07 ES350 a few weeks ago and decided to join this forum due to the overall quality/content of the responses and its sub-dedication to the 350 model. I look forward to your comments. Thanks.

imherenow

YA, actually i have a 2000 es 300 and i too have that system. I think it is because if u start the car in hot weather . then if u turn on the A/C or press AUTO the car actually "sucks" hot air from the inside of the car, because it is warm too, and vents u with cold air.
What u can do is leave the car in cool place (for couple of hours) like garage, in shade, or in underground parking and then turn the car on and press AUTO and the see what happens.. the circulation should not be in re-circ. mode.

Kaius88

I noticed in the old days when a car's AC switch wasnt digital or anything, if you start your car with AC in ON position, it shocks the car and kinda shortens the life of the starter or AC unit. Now, the AC switch is digital, so even if you turn it on with AC on, it waits through the startup sequence then emits cold air. Nice design... but I still have the habit of turning off AC before I shut down the car.

dshahs420

I have a 2006 ES and dont have that problem. The only time my recirc mode comes on is when i have the air at the "defrost" mode. What are your vent settings?

wanderer99

Sarge43 - welcome to the forum. You've got a good first question as it hasn't been covered before. Our car seems to come on in recirc mode. How we have it set is detailed below.

We've had our AC button ON since the day we purchased our car. I don't think we've ever had it off. The climate control AUTO function doesn't work well for us and we don't like it.

Instead we have the recirculate control set to Auto. If you press it a few times until the middle light comes on, the car will just determine if it should be in recirc or fresh air flow mode. Then we just manually adjust the fan speed or vent flow (floor, etc) to our liking. 99% of the time it is blowing directly at us on the lowest fan speed. That's it. We then adjust our individual temps up and down as needed.

Using the AC this way we love the way the car decides if air should recirc or not. Drive behind a late model Honda Accord = switches to recirc. Hit some open road with no cars = fresh air. Pull up behind a Sienna = fresh air. As a result our car still smells like new. This is one of our favorite features.

Nextourer

it doesn't hurt to turn off before stopping but give some time to let the air blow over. It might solve some of the weird smell (mildew?) that some of us (incl. me) have experienced with Toyotas.

Ingram4868

I rather like the idea of it starting off in recirculate mode. I usually start the car in the garage and even with the garage door open the fumes can get sucked up into the fresh air intake. With my car it will kick out of recirculate mode in about 5 minutes if conditions are right.

You can also adjust the sensitivity of the recirculate function which is covered on page 240 of the NAV manual.

Gloval

I am new to this forum as well. I was actually wondering about the auto-recirculation function on the ES350. I typically keep my climate control on Auto and I always have the recirculation function on Auto as well. However, when I turn off the car and turn it on again, the recirculation button never remembers that it was in Auto. Is this normal or a bug?

Thank you in advance.

wanderer99

When I use the AC in the way I described earlier, it always is on auto recirc when I restart the car. Always. It's just set and forget for me.

sarge43

Thanks very much for the feedback.

To respond to some of the comments:
The vent settings are for the face/dash only (not defrost or heat or foot well).

The car is not being started nor turned off with the A/C on.

The car is garaged overnight and my observations have come after starting first thing in the AM so sucking up hot air is not an issue.

One of the things I was planning on looking at was the smog sensor setting. I haven't touched it since I got the car new (but that doesn't mean someone didn't monkey around with it prior to delivery). But, as I understand it, the smog sensor works only when the air intake button is in the Auto mode (which it is not for my testing - it is in the recirc or fresh air setting). So this should not be a solution for this issue.

I've tried various combinations of settings (main auto button, air intake auto button, manually turning the A/C on/off, turning the fan/system then adjusting the air intake button, ...).

When the air intake button is set on Auto, the A/C comes on (which I believe it should do).

I just cannot get the car to start off in fresh air mode (and not recirc mode). Any other suggestions?

dreyfus

You're right, the car always starts in recirc mode and it IS a pain for those of us who always like fresh.

As was mentioned by wanderer99 above, you can use the auto recirc mode and it will eventually reset itself to fresh air after starting in recirc.

A strange design, I'll admit.

sarge43

I noticed this issue since the interior was getting a bit stuffy and looked down and saw the button reverted to recirc after having set it to fresh air the night before turning the car off.

I'll try leaving it in recirc (as you guys say) to see if it changes back and how long it'll take. Thanks again.

toneman

I guess it all comes down to if you leave the climate control set to AUTO all the time (i.e., never turn off AUTO); I find that--at least in my case--if I turn off AUTO but leave the fan on manual control, w/ vent setting set to fresh air (vs. recirc)...when I next start the car the climate control (still not on AUTO mode) will still have the vent setting on fresh air.

I'm guessing that most of you folks leave the climate control on AUTO all the time...hence the car always starting in recirc mode.

Please--no questions as to why I would NOT leave the climate control on AUTO all the time...that is my choice and I'm sticking with it! Besides--if Lexus felt that the climate control should be set to AUTO all the time, then they wouldn't have engineered it so that you could turn off AUTO.

sarge43

toneman: I am doing the same as you - manual fan setting and air intake in fresh air mode at the time of turn off. Car starts off back in recirc.

toneman

Hmmm...I guess what intake mode it starts in probably depends on a combination of ambient air temp, inside air temp, and/or climate control temp setting?